Broken Bonds Forge New Friendships
by ChaosDragonslayer777
Summary: Natsu bonds with Fairytail are severed due the interference from a dark guild.His friends won't listen to reason and he is forced to leave Fairytail.He comes across some less than well known friends that help Natsu knowing he may never be able to trust Fairy tail again.Tartaros arc still happens with slight changes arc will mostly follow canon. I suck at summaries Epic/badass Natsu
1. Chapter 1

**A/N; Hey people I'm back with a brand new story that is about one of my favourite craic ships Natsu and Meredy/Meldy. This is a story about misunderstandings and betrayal and take place after GMG but before the Tartarus Arc so without further ado let the story begin and I hope you enjoy.**

" **How long? How long have I ran for...? How long has it been since they abandon me and how long has it been since I lost my arm?"** were the thoughts of Natsu Dragneel as he lay up in a tree staring at his right arm that was now a magically enhanced metal prosthetic limb from the elbow down like Gildarts' arm.

"I realise I hurt them but it was like the Guild wouldn't even here me out like all of them were under some sort of influence… well I can't say all of them Mira, Lis and Elfman weren't there and neither were Laxus and Gildarts." He said clutching his metallic fingers into a fist.

 **Flashback**

" **What's wrong with everyone, what the hell is the cold shoulder for?" Natsu cried in the middle of the guild everyone there were giving the cold shoulder or stares that could kill. "You endangered the lives of your team Natsu, Gray and Lucy woke up from the mission they were on the other with you and had severe burns." Master Makarov said sternly.**

" **Hey I realise that I hurt them old man but it wasn't that bad, they had Gray and Lucy hostage as well as the villagers, it was either the burns or surrender and let them die what…" was Natsu response but he didn't finish as he felt someone's hand come into contact with his face**. **Erza Scarlet stood between the dragonslayer and the master after slapping the dragonslayer across the face.**

" **Erza?" "Natsu you don't know that, you made a rash, reckless stupid impulsive decision like you always do and ended up jeopardizing the lives of your teammates, Lucy's left arm and leg are almost completely covered in burns while most of Gray's chest is burnt. You may have saved us countless times in the past but that will never excuse your actions."**

" **But…" was all Natsu could say before he felt Makarovs magic surging. "You are hereby banished from Fairytail, I will give you one day to pack your things before we come for you. You have made an enemy of us Natsu and even if you were one of my children you shall receive Fairytail's wrath like any other enemy now go before I change my mind!" Makarov shouted snapping the Salamander from his daze.**

 **As he left the Building teary eyed and confused his guild mark faded and he mind raced with what was happening. "What is happening? Sure I hurt them but if I hadn't they would have died why won't they listen? Why won't my family hear my words?" He thought as he walked down the street getting confused looks from the towns' folk. Then he remembered Erza's word "reckless, rash, stupid and impulsive."**

 **Each word hurt him deeply itself, but coming from her made it hurt even more. "They won't understand me, they want me dead, they betrayed me… Fairytail betrayed me!" he growled at the thought that the people he was so close to wanted him dead but in reality that seemed like what they wanted.**

 **Two months had passed since then and Natsu wanted to keep a low profile and had been doing well, no mages from his ex-guild found him yet so he figured he was doing a good job until he had run into the one Fairytail wizard he hoped hadn't heard about the News so he would be able to explain with the chance of death.**

 **Natsu Dragneel ex-Fairytail wizard had run into Gildarts Clive Ace of Fairytail, most powerful wizard and in terms of who to be feared in battle he topped the charts. Luck was on the slayers side as Gildarts hadn't heard the news and fully understood where the slayer was coming from and wanted him to come back to Fairytail with him so he could straighten this whole thing out after he finished his newest decade quest but Natsu refused and explained he didn't feel at home in Fairytail anymore and so the two mages parted ways.**

 **A month later and Natsu had discovered that Fairytail had done the unthinkable. "What did you bastard?" Natsu questioned the leader of a hooded group of figures. "You heard me pinkey, our guild received a request for your assassination under the clients Erza Scarlet and Makarov Dreyar but of course were a dark guild as I'm sure you can tell." The man declared in a dark tone. Natsu was frozen in shock, this wasn't the first Dark guild group he had fought he had fought numerous ones since he left Fairytail but this was the first he'd heard of an assassination request for him.**

 **Taking advantage of his current state one of the Dark guild members jumped forward with a sword in an attempt to behead the Salamander. However Natsu snapped back out of his daze but not fast enough as he could only raise his right arm up in an attempt to block the sword but it only resulted in him losing his arm from the elbow down.**

" **RAAAGHHH!" he shouted out in pain, but had to recompose himself or he knew he would end up dead. Quickly he decided to use his roar to dispatch his opposing enemies in a quick fashion but collapsed afterwards due to the combination of the pain, blood loss and expenditure of magic.**

" **Ugh where am I?" Natsu said quickly raising his right arm up after suddenly being able to feel fingers. For the second time that day he was shocked beyond words as now in place of his hard he saw from his elbow down a metal prosthetic limb like Gildarts'. "What happened to me?" he said to himself. "Ah good you're awake, thank goodness I found you out in the forest so I rushed you back to my infirmary, we have limited supplies so I was only able regenerate your bones and not your arm I'm sorry." Said a young women who had short brown hair, Blue eyes and looked to be in her early twenties.**

" **No don't apologize you saved me, I really am greatly, it would have been a pain to only have one arm so thank you, you don't know how much I mean it." Natsu said bowing his head towards the women. "Anna my name is Anna and you're very welcome Mr.?" she said turning the last part into a question. Not wanting to give his name he quickly thought of another "Dragion, Haru Dragion but just call me Haru." he said mentally patting himself on the back.**

" **Oh Haru that means spring doesn't it, that's a lovely name." she said with a warm smile. "Does it I had no idea, anyway I have one question is this thing magically enhanced cause I would still like two hands to be able to use my magic you see I'm a fire mage." He asked "Don't worry that arm is a top of the line model that has a resistance to every kind of magic, I remember my Parents made one for a crash magic wizard some seven years ago who lost his arm and leg in a battle against some sort of creature even though the wizard had enough magic power to decimate a mountain in the blink of an eye. So you should be able to use your fire magic with that arm no bother. Anna told him smiling pointing to the ruins on the side of the arm.**

 **Flashback end**

"Three and half months huh, I wonder if Anna is okay because if she got in trouble for helping me or worse God himself won't be an obstacle." He said grinding his teeth in anger. "Maybe I'll visit her another day but right now I need to fix my pressing issue of money, if I can do some jobs here and there I can get myself some cash so I can eat something decent, fish almost every day is getting boring. Oh yeah the little bit I have left let me see… 600 jewel about enough for a standard bottle of hair dye but what colour?" He said to himself trying to think of a new hair colour that would suite him.

"I'll figure it out after I do some work." He said before walking off in the direction which he believed would take him to the nearest town. On his Way he caught two familiar scents and started looking around frantically until he saw a castle upon a distant hill, taking a sniff of the air he caught track of the two scents once more. "They're definitely up there maybe they can help me unless Erza has already got to him. Well it's worth a shot." He said before bolting for the castle.

After a few minutes he reached the Castle entrance and by the looks of it the place was deserted but he knew better a dragon's nose never lies. Knocking very loudly on the front door he then shouted "Oi Jellal Meredy it's me Natsu, I need to talk to you, just hear me out!" he shouted at the castle. After a moment or two Meredy poked her head out window and looked down "Oh Natsu it really is you, how you doing!?" She shouts down to him who only responds by raising his metal arm in the air.

"Oh my god hang on I'll get Jellal we'll be down in a minute okay." She shouts in a worried tone. "Take your time Meredy I'm in no rush." He replies.

 **Up with Meredy**

Pulling her back into the room she ran down the hall to Jellal room and burst into the room. Jellal was taken by surprise at first but upon seeing the look on Meredy's face he opted to let her explain. Catching her breath she managed to say some words in between puffs. "Jellal…Natsu…here…need help…you follow…" was all she said before running to the gates of the castle with Jellal following close behind.

Opening the Doors of the castle they see Natsu with his arms folded leaning up against one of the various castle walls. "Good to see you guys is it alright if we talk about something?" He asked still hoping word hadn't reached them. "Of course Natsu, but the next you find me a Jellal's hideout try not to scream our names loud enough for the entire of Fiore to hear, we're still criminals after all." Meredy said half-heartedly.

"Wait you guys haven't heard yet?" he questioned the pair. "Heard what?" was the reply Jellal gave him. "Ah man I told Erza to tell you, doesn't matter well after the fight with the dragons the king was told of your involvement and has dropped all charges against you and will allow Crime Sorciere to became a legal guild, that would also mean you could get new members that would greatly help in your efforts in taking down dark guild neh." Natsu said with a grin knowing he would hit a sweet spot with Jellal.

Said blue haired man was currently shocked, as was Meredy they both had their mouths agape trying to form words which lasted for about a minute until Jellal finally recomposed himself. "Even if what you say is true Natsu we can't become a legal guild not after what me and Meredy have done we can't because…" he stopped when he felt a heavy metallic hand on his shoulder. Looking at the hand he saw it indeed belonged to Natsu but was made of metal.

He was about to ask what happened to his hand when the dragonslayer spoke up. "Stop beating yourselves up, you've made a couple of mistakes in the past so what we all have. Everyone deserves a second shot at trying to make a life for themselves, you cannot change your past, you may never be able to move on from it but you can accept, our pasts don't make us who we are what we do in the here and now does, at least think about it before you just blatantly refuse okay." Natsu said with a smile his voice carried an understanding but wise tone to it which was common when he spoke in these sort of situations.

There was a silence in the group both Jellal and Meredy were taking in Natsu's word both quite shocked that the food loving only lived for fighting dragonslayer could say such words. The silence remained until Meredy spoke up "Okay Natsu we'll think about it, but I take it whatever you're here to talk about involves your arm there doesn't it." She said to the dragonslayer who was now clutching the metallic limb with his other hand.

"We can talk inside, I'll make some tea" Jellal said in an almost emotionless tone. Walking in Natsu took in the sights of all the paintings that were still intact one of which particularly caught his attention. The painting was of a dragon that he immediately recognised as Acnologia coming down from the heavens breathing fire upon someone that appeared to be blocking the legendary dragon of the apocalypse. He stared for a minute before Jellal and Meredy called him over to sit down on a chair opposite them across a table.

"So what is so important you need to talk to us about it?" Jellal asked curiously as he prepared the tea. "Makarov and Erza have issued a warrant to all the dark guilds for my assassination" Natsu said in a stern a calm voice. Upon hearing both names along with assassination Jellal drop the tray in his hands causing all the cups to shatter. "What did you say?" he shakily asked shock laced throughout his as well as Meredy's features.

"I suppose I better start from the start." He said and then started to explain the whole predicament in every miniscule detail he could recall. After Natsu's story Jellal had a very worried explanation on his face. "You're right Natsu, the way they reacted it wasn't very Fairytail there was no understanding just assault. You say that Laxus, Gildarts and the Strauss siblings weren't present at the guild and that you met Gildarts while on the run who thoroughly understood your predicament didn't you?" Jellal stated at first but then questioned to make sure he had his Facts straight.

"Yeah, I've been on the run a little over 3 months now and a month ago I found out about the assassination request but I assume they've been going on longer seeing as had been attacked by dark guild members for the last 2 months however the last attack was when I found out about the request. "He said his voice just audible however both of his friends could clearly hear the sadness in his voice.

"Natsu I don't think the Fairytail members did this out of their own will to me this sounds more like the work of an extremely powerful mind control or memory spell, but if all of Fairytail was affected that would be a different story, they must have been in close proximity of the guild when casting the spell otherwise Gildarts would have probably attacked and killed you. Even so I'd have to say for a spell the powerful to control so many powerful wizards at once is was most likely a wide-range spell probably with a range of all over Magnolia, that would result in why Gildarts didn't attack you and if the Strauss siblings and Laxus were outside of Magnolia like he was then it is very likely they weren't affected." Meredy deduced using all the knowledge her mother figure Ultear had passed onto her before disappearing.

"You really think so?" Natsu said raising his head slightly as a glimmer of hope finally appeared from the darkness. "Yeah if my theory is correct that there is someone still within Magnolia all that has to be done is to find him and defeat him" She replied with a reassuring smile raising her right hand an index finger to the side of her face. "Okay

"That sounds great and all but even if it wasn't of their own free will I don't think I could ever return to Fairytail, yeah someone was manipulating them but in Fairytail the bonds between our family are what is most important, being the strongest Guild means nothing without bonds and when they are destroyed those bonds are nearly impossible to re-forge. That said I do want to still help them but if I go anywhere near Magnolia I could easily be attacked by the guild so I have another suggestion." He said while letting out a long sigh.

"What is your suggestion then?" Jellal asked as he leaned forwards on the chair he sat on. "Well there are two, the first one is that you and Meredy go find him and beat him and the second is that if luck would be on my side that we manage to come into contact with Laxus and Gildarts on their way back to the guild and let both of them take care of it but for now the first option seems to be the best." Natsu said to his companions with a renewed vigour. "I agree that would be the best option, so Meredy and I will set off immediately while you stay hear should all go to plan we will be back by nightfall and I take you don't want me saying anything about your where abouts." Jellal said with a hint of sorrow in his voice he knew that this was a hard and trying experience for Natsu and truly felt sorry for him.

"More or less just tell that you saw the information about my assassination in a dark guild you took down, I'll be waiting till you guys return and by the way there isn't a bath in this place I haven't been able to get one in a while?" Natsu said to the pair before asking the completely unrelated question about bathing causing to seat drop.

"The bath is the second door on your right when you take the first set of stairs and as long as you're sure about not saying anything about you then I guess it is fine." Meredy said looking back at Natsu through the entrance of the Castle. "Meredy, Jellal thank-you so much for doing this, I may not ever be able to go back to Fairytail but at least I still have my connections to all my friends." He said following up with his signature toothy smile that made the Sensory link mage's heart skip a beat.

Quickly turning her head forward so that Natsu couldn't see the blush on her face Meredy felt her surroundings go blank as she plunged into thought. **"What was that, why is my heart beating so fast I barely know the guy, sure he good looking NOOO! Stop thinking like that Meredy just because he has an amazing body doesn't mean…ahhhh! What wrong with me?"** Meredy screamed internally at her inner debate on the dragonslayer's looks causing her face to redden and not notice that Jellal had taken her hand.

"Hold on tight Meredy" he said before crouching.

"Eh?" Meredy sounded finally coming back to reality only to hear.

" **Meteor!** " Jellal shouted activating the spell causing the two to rocket off towards Magnolia.

"AAAAHHHHH!" was all Meredy could scream out the insane speeds muffling the scream and her voice somewhat but Jellal still managed to pick up bits and pieces like "Jellal I hate you so much" and "slow the down or I swear to god I'll kill you" but he pay attention to what she said instead out his newly found humourus streak increased his speed muffling Meredy's screams further.

 **Back at Crime Sorciere current base**

Natsu was out back behind the castle in the few weeks he had his new arm he had yet to test it out to see if it was durable enough to fight with both physically and magically so decided to take it for a test before he would go for a bath. Eyeing up a boulder he got in a fighting stance and started breathing in a rhythmic fashion before leaping forward and slamming his bare metal fist into the surface of the boulder.

Upon impact no damage apart from the initial fist print seemed to be present on the boulder which was a 3 metres wides and 5 metres high. Retracting his fist he could see that no damage had been done to the prosthetic limb and so was pleased with its first performance, but was even more pleased when cracks started to extend throughout the boulder from where he hit it. He stood there with a grin taking pride in his handwork as he watched it fall apart. "Not bad for the first test run, now how will yo do magically?" he said with his attention directed towards his gauntlet like fist.

"Okay I'll start off with the basic and work my way up to lightning flame mode." He said to himself before nodding. Walking into a clearing he cast he cast spell after spell repeating two or three times if he didn't think it was strong enough. Before Natsu knew it the sun was setting and he was preparing his final spell for the last time. " **Advanced Dragonslayer's Secret Art; Crimson Lotus Exploding Lightning Blade!** " he roared out swiping his arms in a circular motion the left covered in lightning while his prosthetic right arm was coated in flames.

As both arms swung in a circular motion the lightning and Flames met and fused together proceeding forward tearing up the earth and then exploding on contact with a hillside sending shockwaves throughout the area. "Damn I'm totally drained, at least this thing held up so I won't have to worry about that during a fight or something. Ah man better take that bath before Jellal and Meredy and Meredy get back." He said with a sigh at the end not knowing what to expect from their endeavours.

After making his way to the bathroom and getting into the bath he had drawn himself he had to admit that it was damn nice for a place that looked so runned down. "Aw man it feels nice to actually have a bath for a change." He said aloud as let his body sink beneath the water. He was in total relaxation mode when he was sure he heard the doors of the castle slam shut but shrugged it off as the wind, oh how wrong he was.

As he went back to relaxing he then heard the familiar voice along with words that filled his mind with dread from past experiences. "Jellal you go find Natsu and tell him the good news I'm off for a bath." Meredy said in a sing song voice. Natsu started panicking but was unable to do nor say anything when Meredy burst into the bathing in nothing but her birthday suit stark naked the day she was born giving the dragonslayer a full frontal view of everything.

Meredy had yet to notice him as he hadn't made a sound but upon opening her eyes she saw the dragonslayer sitting in the bath trying to contain a nosebleed with his face the same colour as Erza's hair. Both mages were frozen in pace for a few secs as a comical gust of wind dragged along a random tumbleweed from somewhere. It was all silent neither mages moved nor made a sound until Meredy covered herself up with whatever she could before summoning several teal swords surrounding Natsu and shouting loud enough for all of Fiore to hear

"PERVERT!"

 **Okay that's this chapter, not sure if I've done it right but for my idea most of what happened in this chapter isn't the main story, as I'm sure you've all guessed where I'm going with this but in case some of you haven't then I won't say. All I can say is that later chapters if story gets poplar enough will involve shit with the Tartarus arc which in the anime right is better than I expected although it can't compare to the anime it's still for the anime which until recent episode had practically if not zero blood spill tolerance and that's why the manga is better because they make the characters look so much more badass, Anyways show the story a little love if you like it, aren't enough craic pairing stories of Natsu and Meredy/Merudy/Meldy till next time if there is there is one hahaha…ha…ha:(**


	2. A New Life

**Okay guys back with next chapter and I'm sorry I haven't been updating more frequently it has been a hectic few weeks for me but at least I got it done and that's what counts. So let's get started, hope you enjoy it.**

Jellal was trying his hardest to supress his laughter at the sight in front of him but was failing miserably. Before him sat Meredy with a displeased expression on her face and beside her was Natsu Dragneel who now was the proud owner of a red handprint on the right side of his face as well as a very black eye.

"Hahaha…oh man you lucked." Jellal said still trying his best to supress his laughter. "Shut it Jellal! It's not my fault, she walked in on me!" Natsu proclaimed furiously but had to admit to himself it was nice to see the usually stoic man have a smile on his face. "So how did your search go?" Natsu then questioned the tattoo faced man with a bit of hope evident in his voice.

Jellal's face then turned into that of a serious expression, "It was as Meredy said, someone was using a powerful long range area spell to manipulate their minds and will. We found him with the help of Laxus and the thunder-god tribe, however after defeating him and his subordinates we discovered a very disturbing fact." Jellal explained his tone seemed to get more serious with every word. "This particular group of mages were hired by the last cornerstone of the Balam Alliance, Tartaros." Meredy said picking up from where Jellal had left off.

Natsu was slightly happy at hearing that his friends didn't do what they did out of their own free will but he still needed to make sure of something first. "Wait you said that you had help from Laxus and the thunder-god tribe. So does that mean that they are aware of my situation?" Natsu asked to just make sure that his whereabouts remained unknown. "Laxus is a lot smarter than either of us thought Natsu and we soon had to tell him and the thunder-god tribe of your situation. But don't worry they fully understand how you feel and have sworn to keep the information to themselves." Meredy said with a slightly upbeat tone trying to reassure the dragonslayer that he was safe.

"Well that's good, I guess I can depend on Laxus and the others to keep my secret…oh shit I totally forgot to tell Gildarts to keep it a secret, I'm so screwed he can't keep a secret worth for shit!" Natsu said calmly but then began to panic remembering what he didn't tell Gildarts to do. "You do appear to have a problem there, if Fairytail came looking for you then they would easily notice you curtesy of your pink hair." Jellal said while trying to think of what to do. "Yeah your right AND ITS NOT PINK ITS SALMON!" the dragonslayer replied shouting at the last part being completely in denial of his hair colour.

"Wait what if we change his image, would that work?" Meredy asked in optimism. "That actually just might work Meredy but Natsu how do you feel about it?" Jellal said mentally kicking himself for something so simple but put it to the side thinking that it must have been a girl thing when it came to looks. **"I like my hair how it is, but it is a dead give-away to who I am."** Natsu thought to himself he thought that just changing his hair colour would be enough to change his appearance completely.

"I suppose that would be fine but I don't have enough money to afford a complete make-over." Natsu said with a bored tone to his voice. "Don't worry about cost we'll take care of that. But Natsu I do have a question for you and depending on you answer a proposal for you." Jellal said with a small smile on his face. "If it's about where I'm going I haven't thought about it as for your proposal I can't marry you I'm sorry." Natsu replied actually being serious about what he just said. "IT'S NOT THAT KIND OF PROPOSAL!" the azure haired man shouted in response while Meredy's pure innocent mind was already conjuring up some unmentionable images concerning the two males.

"Okay then what kind is it?" Natsu asked dumbly thinking that there was only one kind of proposal. Recomposing himself Jellal cleared his throat. "The kind that involves you joining our guild, as you said it helps having more members but to do that we need to become a legal guild. We will still think about becoming one but for the meanwhile we would like you to join us, we aren't criminals at the very least now but we will still continue to fight dark guilds in Fiore in order to rid this world of evil and ultimately Zeref." Jellal said making sure to mention Zeref as he knew Natsu still hated the man for summoning Acnologia seven years ago on Tenrou.

It wasn't that he was trying to trick the dragonslayer into joining Crime Sorciere it was that he was desperate for powerful mages and one's as powerful as Natsu don't come around as often as you'd imagine, That was one of his two reasons the other was that he was concerned for the fire mage, knowing how short his temper was Jellal was sure that he'd try to attack Tartaros upon the mention of them, and trying to fight the now most powerful dark guild in existence by yourself was sheer suicide.

"…Zeref…" Natsu muttered under his breath clenching his fists trying to control the surge of magic that was bursting to escape from his body at the mention of the Black Wizard's name. Calming down a little Natsu looked to Jellal and then to Meredy causing her to blush a little. Natsu stifled a small laugh before saying "As long as you plan on becoming a legal guild someday I'm cool with it, besides who am I to disappoint my friends." Natsu said with a calm tone of voice before giving a bright smile.

"That's good to hear Natsu, you don't know how relieved me and Jellal are to hear you say that. As powerful as we are it becomes troublesome having to deal with Dark guilds by ourselves since we lost Ultear." Meredy said happily before she mentioned the passing of her mother figure. Which didn't go unnoticed by Jellal and Natsu who then placed a comforting hand on her shoulder "we all lose people that are important to us Meredy, I lost Igneel and my real parents and in that sense we are similar we've both lost are real families but were then taken by someone who tried to fill that gap. I don't know if Igneel is alive or dead, if he abandoned me or not but it still left a void in my life we both found family in terms of our guilds Fairytail for me and Crime Sorciere for you and if you'll allow me I'd like to be a part of your family too." He said with a caring yet sympathetic tone causing the sensory link mage to break down into tears.

As the tears pooled in her eyes she felt Natsu's arm wrap around her tightly, but it was uncomfortable, no to her she felt warm and safe like as long as he was around nothing could hurt her. **"He's so warm, it just feels like all my worries and fears are melting away."** She thought to herself while burying her head into the crook of his neck. **"Maybe he's just what she needs, she has never been the same since Ultear went missing even though she doesn't show it she's still hurting. Maybe you can change that Natsu."** Jellal thought to himself a small smile gracing his features as he watched the two.

 **A few hours later**

"Okay Natsu so how do you like your new look?" Meredy asked after finishing the make-over. "Hmmm…I like it, it looks great." He replied giving her a childish grin. Natsu hair was know a lot more tame, it still retained the spikes at the base of the hair while the rest of his hair sat flat with strands that jutted over his face. But to complete the look his hair was a silvery grey colour that made Natsu look more mature. (A/N: If you can't imagine it then it looks like Meliodas' hair style from Nanatsu no taizai just a different colour. Great anime by the way good watch if you like Fairytail.)

"Yeah it suits, this way Fairytail shouldn't be able to recognise you unless you something stupid." Meredy said giggling at the fact that she knew he would probably do something stupid. "Thanks and HEY!" Natsu replied appreciating the comment but not the insult. "What makes you think I'll do something stupid?" Natsu questioned while pouting like a child. "Ah come on Natsu don't be like that I'm sorry." Meredy replied while giving him the puppy dog look believing she had hurt his feelings.

"I-its fine, I guess I need to act a little more mature as well if I don't want them to realise this is me, besides it's not as if you meant any harm by it." He said calmly while slightly stuttering at the start, for some reason the face she made reminded him of the face Mira would make whenever she was sad and wanted someone to forgive them, it was something that not even Natsu was immune to and would always try to make her smile afterwards. However he was sure that this was something else because when Mira made that face he just feel down if he was the one who caused it but when Meredy made that face it made him feel like someone put a knife through his heart but decided to ignore the feeling for now.

"Ah good I found you two, Meredy we have a new lead on a dark guild we leave immediately. I hope you're prepared Natsu as this will be are first time properly working together." Jellal said as he entered the room the two were in. "More than you know it!" he exclaimed excitedly as he slammed his left hand into the palm of the metallic right. "Oh one other thing only call me Natsu when were alone, while we are around others I'd prefer for you to use the alias I created." Natsu said in neutral tone. "And what might said alias be?" Meredy asked with a very curious tone. "Haru Dragion." He replied.

"That's okay for now but don't you think that there is still one dead give-away to who you really are." Jellal said which confused both present mages as they stared blankly at him. "Your magic, you are a dragon which are still rare despite the fact there are now more of you. However you're still the only known fire dragonslayer so I suggest after we get back and fix this place up you hit the books and learn a new type of magic, I could probably teach you some heavenly body magic and other elemental magic but that's it. I'm sure Meredy has something she could teach you as well." He said with an almost happy tone but then turned slightly more deviant at the last comment as he specify what Meredy could teach him which said mage immediately caught onto making her face rival the colour of Erza's hair before she impaled Jellal in the face with a right hook implanting him in the wall.

 **1 hour later at the dark guild**

" **Fire Dragon's Roar!"**

" **Heavenly Arrows!"**

" **Maguilty Senses** ; **teal swords!"**

Explosion after explosion was heard throughout the dark guild known as Crimson Devil. Members lay unconscious on the ground some with burn marks, other broken bones and others were completely paralyzed.

"Aw these guys aren't putting up as much of a fight as I had hoped. Jellal you suck man" Natsu said in a depressed manner while knocking another member into unconsciousness with a flaming fist to the face. "Hey how was I supposed to know they were all weaklings?" Jellal retorted rather annoyed that the salamander was pinning the blame on him for the dark guild being weak while he knocked another member into the wall. Meredy was standing at the entrance to the guild picking off and paralysing any stragglers. She stood there and watched as Jellal and Natsu beat the last of the members and were suddenly at each other's throats calling each other petty names while they butted foreheads.

This was a first for Meredy, never once had she seen him lose his cool like this apart from when he got teased about being a show-off in front of Erza or that the two were secret lovers. She didn't know how he did it but Natsu being Natsu managed to bring out a childish side to the azure haired man's personality which was more than welcome. But in all seriousness their squabble reminded her off the petty fights Natsu would have with Gray.

"Tattoo cunt!"

"Fire prick!"

"Wuss!"

"Ass!"

"Would you two fucking stop bickering for one second!" Meredy shouted as teal swords appeared around the two mages separating them while a dark malicious aura surround the bubbly pink haired mage. "Now you two are gonna stop acting like children and get along like a friends should." She then ordered as the aura increased. "Don't worry Meredy that was just an exchange of witty remarks between good buddies right Natsu." Jellal said slightly fearful of Meredy's new aggressive side that reminded both him and Natsu of a certain red head. Natsu was sweating bullets as was Jellal but Natsu nodded in agreement and before saying "Yeah man of course, we'll be the best of friends in no time right." "That's a ten four good buddy" Jellal quickly replied keeping the act going.

"Well that's good to hear because if your lying Jellal the punishment will be THAT!" Meredy said in a sickly sweet voice that sent chills up both mages spine. Jellal was well aware of THAT Natsu was well accustomed to the THAT in Fairytail so if was anything Like what Mater Makarov would do he had every right to be afraid. Meredy lowered her telepathic swords when she felt her communication Lacrima activate. "Jellal incoming lacrima call." Meredy said to make sure Jellal composed himself.

"Ah Laxus are you alone?" Jellal asked the Lightning mage. "Don't you worry your little blue head about that, I am at my house." Laxus replied reassuring Jellal. "Good so what are you calling about? I thought we agreed that you weren't to call unless it was an emergency or had something to do with Natsu." Jellal asked knowing that he made the conditions clear to Laxus. "That's why I'm calling, it is an emergency and has something to do with Natsu so let me speak to him I know he's there." Laxus said in stern assertive voice.

"Yo Laxus it been a while since I last saw your ugly mug" Natsu said sarcastically as he walked up to the Lacrima. "Holy shit what's up with your hair hahaha?" Laxus asked before bursting into laughter attracting the attention of people who heard him when they passed by his place. "Yeah well fuck you two. This is a pre-cautionary measure to stop the rest of Fairytail from noticing me." Natsu retorted in a pissed off tone. "I'll say I almost didn't believe it was you for a second. But back to the matters at hand, everyone at Fairytail that was under the influence of that spell knows you're alive because of that idiot Gildarts." Laxus replied with his usual stoic expression.

"Fuck I knew that idiot would blow my cover what the hell happened?" Natsu asked "What do you think? The idiot came into the guild destroying one of the walls right next to the doors before blowing up at Gramps luckily I calmed him down before a fight broke out. Sorry I had to update him on the situation, he knows pretty much everything but have had him sworn to secrecy under the penalty of having to walk around in Magnolia in nothing but a pair of Cana's underwear. I think we can safely say he'll stay quiet about your where abouts but gramps has sent your old team after you." Laxus said still in his usual stoic expression.

"I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Well if they want to find me let them try if I don't want to be found then I won't." Natsu replied smugly. "Yeah I know you could be even worse than Mystogan at his best when it comes to not being found" Laxus said chuckling at the statement. "Well any way good luck I just wanted to give you a heads up just in case you know how stubborn Erza can be…no offense Jellal" The lightning mag continued, "Tell me about, and didn't think you cared that much about me I'm touched" Natsu replied in a mocking tone.

"Well fuck you too, next time I won't call at all."

"Love you too Laxus"

"Yeah, yeah I know I mean who couldn't love this?" Laxus asked rhetorically while motioning to himself. "Man I don't know whether I'm going to miss that arrogance of yours or not" Natsu replied in an amused tone. "Yeah well I don't know if I'll miss that stupidity of yours." Laxus retorted in an equally amused tone. "Yeah well thanks until next time" Natsu said as he was about switch off the lacrima but was stopped when Laxus said something "Hey Natsu" Laxus said causing Natsu to look into the lacrima to Laxus making the Fairytail symbol that he created as a little child. "We'll always be looking your way, good luck Salamander." Laxus said before terminating the communication.

"Who would have thought you could get to me like that thunder cunt." Natsu said while grinning as a tear slid down his face. "Natsu are you alright?" Meredy asked concern laced into her voice. "Yeah I'm fine, now let's get this lot handed over to the ruin knights." He replied to her using his thumb o wipe away the stray tear on his face. "Okay then, Natsu you said that we are no longer recognised as criminals well if that's the case I'll use my meteor to reach the nearest ruin knight outpost." Jellal said in a passive tone. "Okay we'll stay here with them and you go on." Natsu replies giving Jellal the go-ahead.

" **Meteor!"** the azure haired man shouted as he sped away in the distance leaving behind Meredy and Natsu. They then waited not saying anything leaving an awkward and uncomfortable silence between them, "So how do you like working with us Natsu?" Meredy asked breaking the silence with whatever came to mind. Usually she was quick to think about topics for conversation but something was different no that she was alone with Natsu not counting the horde of tied up unconscious dark guild members behind then. She didn't know how to act around him or how to talk with him, though she had heard a lot about him from her time in Grimoire Heart and directly from Ultear and Jellal she didn't really know him that well apart from his destructive tendencies and his undying loyalty to his guild.

"Well I have to say it's a lot like Fairytail it almost feels like I'm on my old team." He replied his voice sounding quite cheery. "How so?" Meredy asked in response. "Well when I went on jobs with my old team I would always be butting head and fighting with Gray over stupid things and Erza would always get pissed at us, in Fairytail everyone looked out for one another. I get the same sense with you guys I feel like you'll look out for through thick and thin and so I will do the same." He replied giving her his trademark grin.

"Y-y-y-y-you really think so?" Meredy said stuttering very badly for some reason, "Yeah, like I said you guys are my family now and I'll do whatever it takes to protect you guys…even if you don't need to be." Natsu replied in his regular casual idiotic tone. Meredy didn't know why but she was really happy to hear those words come from Natsu and she knew he meant because this was the type of thing he took very seriously even if he didn't sound like it. "That good because we already consider you part of our family." Meredy said in a happy tone giving a bright smile that caused the dragonslayer to blush slightly but then smiled to show he felt the same way and the two just seemed to stare at each other not saying anything.

"AHEM!"

"AHHHH!"

"I hate to break up this touching moment but…I'm back." Jellal said in a sing song voice ruining the moment. **(Very uncharacteristic for him even if he is a tad OC)** "What the hell Jellal way to ruin a moment just to have your fun!" Meredy shouted before further verbally assaulting him causing the Salamander to laugh. **"Yeah I'm definitely going to enjoy this guild."** Natsu said to himself while laughing aloud.

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I'm going to try and keep each chapter at around three and a half to four thousand words each with the odd chapter going to five thousand. So next on my agenda to update is my NaLi story "It All Started in the Rain" so until next time.**


	3. Chapter 3 Tartaros

**It's been a while since I even looked at this story, not much too really say apart from I'm sorry for not updating sooner and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

After alerting the ruin knights of the dark mages they had subdued Crime Sorciere returned to their guild to rest up for the day well Meredy and Jellal anyway as Natsu was in the make shift library searching for a particular type of book for the first time in his life for his own reasons. Natsu had taken Jellal's words to heart about finding a new magic to use in case they were in crowd areas and needed to use magic to apprehend dark mages. Since Natsu's fire dragonslayer magic was so well known he would need a new type of magic to keep his identity a secret even if his new look fooled a lot of people he knew he would be able to fool the other dragonslayers apart from Laxus who already knew about his new look.

"Aha now this is what I'm looking for!" Natsu exclaimed as he picked out a thin book of about 15 pages called 'Crash for Beginners' but before Natsu could start reading the book Meredy walked in rubbing sleep from her eyes and yawning alerting Natsu to her presence as she startled babbling things through her yawn showing just been awoken from a delightful dream, which just so happens to have involved a certain pink haired fire mage. "God Natsu why you have be so loud? I was having such a good dream about y.., I mean food yeah that it" Meredy started saying but quickly corrected herself realising what she was about to say.

"Okay well whatever" Natsu replied with a slightly confused look before returning to the book, "What you got there?" Meredy asked after noticing the book as she leaned on Natsu back over looking his shoulder to get a better look at the book. As the closeness of the proximity and the feeling on his back Natsu's face turned beet red luckily because of their position Meredy couldn't see his face and was completely oblivious to the position they were in. "hey I asked what you got there?" Meredy questioned in a bit of annoyance as she tightened her grip on the dragonslayer pulling her own and his body closer together further pushing her bust into his back causing Natsu's mind to malfunction.

"It's a book about crash magic" he managed to choke out, "oh you wanna learn crash magic, wait what's wrong with your voice?" Meredy asked after noticing how weird the dragonslayer's voice was, "y-your … pressing against me" he answered confusing the female pinkette "Huh?" was her simple reply before finally noticing the position they were in. "PERVERT!" she yelled before punching the dragonslayer in the back of the head. "What the hell did you do now Natsu?" Jellal ask slightly after having been woken from his dream about a certain scarlet haired mage.

"It wasn't me! This time it was all her, she's the one who was leaning her chest into my back" Natsu replied arguing his innocence "Yeah well you should have said something sooner!" Meredy shouted in reply, her face full flush. "Ugh I don't care anymore, Natsu have you figured out if you're gonna learn another magic?" Jellal asked in a fed up tone. "Yeah I want to learn crash magic so I was thinking maybe we could get Gildarts to convince the guild he is going on a mission so that he could come out and help teach me because I don't think this book is gonna help learn too much about crash magic so why not the best and most powerful crash mage I know to teach me plus I'll might get the chance to fight him." Natsu said in a neutral tone which slowly became more excited and child-like as he talked about the aspect of learning from and fighting Gildarts.

"I don't see a problem with that as long as that idiot teaches you how to control properly. I don't want to have to constantly replace furniture and walls because of you not being able to control you magic. "Don't worry Jellal I'm sure he'll be serious about this" Natsu replied in a carefree tone, oh how wrong he was.

 **Four days later**

In the four days waiting for the crash mag to show up Meredy had opted to help Natsu learn whatever he could from the book he found, this helped the two grow closer as the only time the two were apart was for bathing and sleeping, well except that one night but we'll get to that later. Overall it was now very rare for Jellal to see the two pinkettes apart so had taken it upon himself to tease them with every opportunity he got, but as of right now we find our trio standing outside of their base watching a speeding silhouette of someone or thing running towards them.

"NATSUUUUUU!" an angry form of Gildarts shouted as he sprinted full speed towards the dragonslayer after seeing him from a distance, "yeah he's gonna be serious" Jellal said in a mocking tone. **"** My son" Gildarts said as he enveloped Natsu in a bone crushing death hug "Gildarts…stop…crushing me" Natsu managed to say in between choked breaths. "Ops sorry, guess I don't know my own strength." The crash mage replied sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

"Look are you gonna teach Natsu how to use Crash magic or not?" Meredy asked Gildarts who only noticed her now, "Hello beautiful…ow! Natsu what the hell, that's no way to act in front of a lady" Gildarts started but was cut off as Natsu bonked the man on the head with his metal fist which once again Gildarts just noticed. "Natsu what the hell happened to your arm?" he asked in confusion and shock, "well I was caught off guard by some dark mages resulting in me losing my arm but thanks to Anna she was able to save my life by giving me this mechanical arm. She is also apparently the daughter of the people who replaced your limbs after your fight with you know who" Natsu explained as Gildarts started to remember the couple who had helped him and recalled that seven years ago they had a young daughter.

"I always meant to return and thank them properly" Gildarts said as a wave of nostalgia hit him, "Well Anna isn't that far from here and I've been meaning to check up on her so after a couple of days we can visit her and her family, hopefully they'll all be there." Natsu said in soft and gentle tone, "I'm sure Anna is safe and would love to see you again" Meredy said in a reassuring tone while placing her hand on Natsu's shoulder and smiling, Gildarts noticed this as well as the look in Meredy's eyes causing him to sport a smug grin on his face before pulling Natsu away.

"Hey old man what the deal?" Natsu questioned Gildarts in slight anger, "You make me so proud" Gildarts replied in a prideful tone as he placed his hands on Natsu's shoulders, "What the hell are talking about?" Natsu asked in total confusion, "Don't play dumb with me kid, I seen the way you looked at each other, you two are definitely an item" the crash mage said with a teasing tone causing the dragonslayer to blush slightly "Shut up you old pervert" Natsu said in a slightly aggravated and embarrassed tone "We aren't like that" he continued in innocence "but you wanna be" "….." "I'll take you silence as a yes?" Gildarts then said before bursting out in Laughter.

"I only really noticed it now but what's with the hair, I get that you wanted to change your image but this a bit over the top don't you think?" Gildarts asked after finally calming down. "Well I don't really care so are you gonna teach me or not?" Natsu asked still a bit flustered while Gildarts just smiled at him "Yeah don't worry I teach how to be as epic as me" the crash mage said nonchalantly. **"But magic isn't the only thing I'm gonna teach you"** Gildarts thought deviously as a smug grin was plastered on his face.

"You're thinking something perverted aren't you?" Natsu stated the obvious as opposed to asking, "Pfft...What you talking about, I'll have you know I am a gentleman and a scholar sir" Gildarts replied in a sarcastic tone. "Whatever let's just get started" Natsu said I a fed up tone before the two went to a close by mountain to practice the very destructive magic.

 **1 Week Later**

Over the last week Jellal and Meredy had been waiting patiently for their dragonslayer to return from his training and now they stood outside their base watching Gildarts with what they could only assume was a struggling Natsu slung over his shoulder with his usual carefree grin as he did so. Finally wriggling out of the older mages iron grip Natsu sprinted towards his guild mates at insane speeds before sliding to a stop at their feet. "Meredy save me! I don't want to ever go through that again" Natsu cried out like a little girl as he had his arms wrapped around the pinkette's Legs in an unbreakable iron grip.

"What the hell did you do to him?" Jellal asked as he looked at the sobbing Dragonslayer who busy burying his head in between Meredy's thighs rendering her unable to speak and turning her into a red spluttering mess. "I just trained him the way I train myself, I think I even got stronger from all the fights we had." Gildarts replied with a slightly amused tone. "Well was it successful?" Jellal asked now in a more amused tone due to watching Meredy efforts to speak with Natsu cuddling her lower half. "I'll say apart from me and my father, I've never seen anyone take to crash magic so fast" Gildarts replied neutrally

"Wait I thought you were Fairytail's first and only crash mage?" Jellal asked in curiosity, "Well my father was a part of Fairytail long before I was born, he became a part of the guild around half way through the time Hades was the guild master and according to Makarov he became the guilds ace and was even more powerful than Hades himself but he died shortly after I was born so I never got to meet him because he had already died when I found out he was a part of Fairytail" Gildarts said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"How come I never heard about this?" Natsu questioned as he just tuned into the conversation as he walked up beside Jellal leaving a smoking and jabbering Meredy frozen where she stood. "Well you never asked and it isn't exactly something I like to talk about" Gildarts replied plainly. "Fair enough now how about we go visit Anna" Natsu replied not wanting to press on the subject. "Sure lets go" Gildarts replied but not before Natsu went over to Meredy who seemed to be coming back to her sense only to be put back into her previous state when Natsu slung her over his shoulder and started leading Gildarts in the direction of Anna's house leaving a confused Jellal behind who just went back inside to start packing things up before they moved base.

After a quick train ride Natsu with a now calmed down Meredy and Gildarts were approaching Anna's house where said person was standing outside hanging up the washing. "Hey Anna it's me" Anna heard a familiar voice call out but when she turned to its source she saw an unfamiliar person, "I'm sorry sir but who are you?" she asked causing Natsu a bit of confusion to which Meredy lifted when reminding him about his hair.

"Oh now wonder you don't recognise me I've changed my hair since then" Natsu explained while smiling a familiar smile and holding up his metal arm resulting in Anna immediately recognising him "Haru!" she shouted before wrapping him in a hugged caused Meredy to grind her teeth in jealousy as she watched Natsu return the hug. "Yep, hey promise you can keep a secret?" Natsu said to which she just nodded her head, "My name isn't Haru Dragion, my real name is Natsu Dragneel I only gave you a fake name to prevent the possibility of any dark mages coming here to hurt you and your family." He replied causing a shocked expression to crawl across Anna's face.

"You mean thee Natsu Dragneel from Fairytail?" Anna asked in disbelief causing a slight frown to appear on the ex-Fairytail mage's face. "Actually I'm no longer a part of Fairytail" Natsu admitted quietly but still loud enough to here. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't know but at any rate it really good to see you again but who are all these people?" Anna asked as she vaguely recognised the man behind Natsu but didn't recognise the pinkette beside him. "I'm sorry…Anna was it, but are John and Mary here I need to give them a long delayed thanks?" Gildarts spoke up wanting to thank the couple as soon as possible as it was well overdue.

"Um yeah they're out back behind the house but would you mind telling me who you are?" Anna replied causing the crash mage to laugh in a sheepish manner, "My bad, my name is Gildarts Clive and seven years ago your parents saved my life after I was attacked by a dragon so I would very much like to thank them properly" Gildarts replied causing both Anna and Meredy's jaws to hit floor, Meredy because as strong as she believed Gildarts to be after watching the dragons after the Grand Magic Games shrug off the hordes of wizards as mere flies she wasn't able to believe that one lone man no matter how powerful would be able to survive an attack from one of those monsters. Anna didn't know what to say as she had heard rumours of a black dragon that decimated continents but that was all she believed they were and thought dragons were extinct.

"It's true it was the same one that defeated the entire of Fairytail's best without even trying seven years ago on Tenrou Island" Natsu confirmed with much venom in his voice. "Wait you mean he fought Acnologia himself and survived?" Meredy asked in disbelief and a little fear now knowing that Gildarts probably went all out against the dragon king which smashed all her previous predictions of how strong the crash mage actually was. "Yep that's the one, I got serious and went all out for the first time in my life and it was only enough to break a few scales" Gildarts admitted in a defeated tone once again causing Meredy's jaw to hit the ground and Natsu to act out in anger "What the hell do you mean all out seriously for the first time? Then how much power were you using against me during the S-class exams?" Natsu asked in anger to which Gildarts started sweating because he knew if he told Natsu how much he would obviously want a rematch with him at full power and the crash mage didn't want to face 'that' as punishment from Master Makarov who had forbid Gildarts from ever using 100% of his power against any human be they Dark or Light mages.

"Well?" Natsu asked impatiently while Anna and Meredy looked on with curious looks. "70%" He admitted to which the dragonslayer drop to his knees in fear, both Anna and Meredy couldn't believe it, that Natsu Dragneel was shaking in fear wondering just how powerful Gildarts had been at 70% to make Natsu shake in fear at the revelation to the crash mage using only half his full power. "Jeez get a grip kid if it makes you feel any better it took me more than twice as long as you've lived to become this powerful, plus gramps won't let me use any more than that much unless it is a total emergency." Gildarts said in an attempt to calm down Natsu, thankfully it worked but when the Dragonslayer stood up he still had a depressed look on his face.

"Wow how strong was he at 70% then?" Meredy asked in a curious tone, "It was strong enough to shake the entire of Tenrou Island" Natsu admitted with no hint of lies in his voice. "That's not possible, then why didn't you fight Master Hades?" Meredy asked in a slightly pissed tone knowing that Gildarts could have taken Hades if he went all out. "Well during my fight with that Bluenote guy something happened resulting in my magic disappearing and then taking too much Damage without my magic so when I got it back I was too injured to continue fighting after I defeated him. I had actual planned on fighting Hades when I recovered enough but Natsu, Laxus and the others defeated him before I got anywhere close to the ship" Gildarts explained sheepishly.

"And it isn't exactly like I could have used 100% of my power even if I wanted to. The injuries I sustained from Acnologia limited my powers so I haven't been able to go full power since then, hell it strained my body to even use the amount I used against Natsu back then plus I still haven't recovered enough since then to use my full power." Gildarts said causing the dragonslayer to chuckle as if there was some life in him. Looking at him all three people could see a spark of anticipation and excitement back in the dragonslayer's eyes, "Okay old man whenever your back to 100% me and you are having a rematch I don't care what Makarov says we are fighting each other at full power!" Natsu said with fierce determination causing the older mage to grin like a child, "You're on kid and I promise I won't hold back so don't you dare either!" Gildarts replied with equal determination and excitement

 **Sometime later**

After a few hours of being reacquainted Natsu, Meredy and Gildarts made their way back to Crime Sorciere's base where Jellal had finally finished packing and was standing patiently beside the many backpacks and suitcases of provisions, books and clothes they'd be taking with them. "So where are you guys going to go now?" Gildarts asked as he stood in front of the three person mage guild. "I want to go to Era to put the guild down as an official one after that we can begin recruiting more members, we three will remain true to our main objective of riding this world of Zeref and all his darkness and if the other guild members want to join then so be it" Jellal said in a monotonous tone.

"That's a good idea but who is going to be the master?" The crash mage asked out of curiosity, "Well I don't think they'd allow me or Meredy to become the master of the guild because of our past transgressions, while we are excused of what we did the trust element is still an issue so the council will most likely put someone in charge of us. Probably one of the commanders of the ruin knights or a wizard saint but whoever they send will have to very powerful if they are sent to keep us in line and make sure we are legit." Jellal then explained while wondering who they would send as the most obvious of the wizard saints would be Jura but that was quite unlikely as he is a part of Lamia Scale.

"You don't think they'd send one of the heavenly kings do you?" Meredy asked with slight fear evident in her voice, "I don't know but in terms of being able to keep you in check any of them would able. If they were to send one of them the most likely one they'd send would be the one ranked 4th" Gildarts replied in a neutral tone. "Jellal I told you that you will be able to stay as the guild's master, I told the king myself of both your circumstances with your past involvements and he told me himself that your records would be erased and that either of you could become the guild master should you choose to become a legal guild" Natsu spoke up in a slightly irritated tone that Jellal still didn't accept that he was allowed to become the guild master.

"Well now that is settled I'll be on my way I told the old man I'd be away for a few months before I grabbed a bunch of quests and I'm due to be on the other side of Fiore in a few days. See ya Natsu, guess I'll see you when I see you" Gildarts said as he began to walk away while waving good bye to his 'son'. "You better be ready to throw down the next time we meet old man, because next time I'm going to beat your ass!" Natsu shouted at the man he considered a second father.

"SO shall we get going it's going to take over a weak to get to ERA?" Meredy asked her to guild mates as she picked up her bag and began walking away. "Meredy is that all you taking?" Natsu asked in slight shock "Yep you two can carry the rest" she replied resulting in "WHAT!" the two male mages shouted in unison. "You wouldn't make a beautiful lady such as myself to carry any more than this would you" Meredy said while pouting. "Meredy that isn't going to work on me" Jellal replied as he started setting bags in front of the sensory like mage who then decided to use a new found secret weapon, "Natsu you wouldn't make me carry all these bags like that meanie Jellal…would you" she said before pouting and using the puppy dog eyes in maximum over drive resulting in Natsu caving in while releasing a sigh and holding his hand out for her bags causing Meredy to laugh evilly in her head.

"You're lucky you're cute" Natsu grumbled out but still loud enough for the sensory link mage to hear. "S-s-s-s-stop doing that" Meredy stuttered out in embarrassment, "doing what? And are you sick or something you're awfully red?" Natsu asked in an innocent tone knowing full well thanks to Gildarts 'other teaching why this was. He definitely found Meredy attractive but didn't know if he like likes her. "You know exactly what I mean, just hurry up and take these so we can get moving" she said far too quickly and in a very high pitched voice. "As you wish princess" Natsu replied in a mocking tone while giving a bow before the trio set off for their destination

Thanks to Natsu the trio took much longer to get to ERA than originally planned, two weeks longer in fact and although it was fun, well for Jellal anyway as he got more opportunities to tease Natsu and Meredy about how they acted as a couple and getting chances at using innuendos to imply more mature situations between the two pinkette's it was still an arduous journey. For the life of them Natsu and Meredy couldn't believe how Jellal could be so calm, mellow and funny at times and then the rest of the time be the equivalent of an emotionless emo.

However as the trio neared Era they were not greeted by the over shadowing council headquarters but by a smoking pile of rubble with a single lone man standing in front of the building staring at them. "Mest?" Natsu asked himself under his breath as said man started walking towards them with an emotionless face while Meredy and Jellal got into a fighting stance. "I need your help Jellal" Doranbolt said in such serious tone that it unnerved Jellal. "Why would you need my help Doranbolt?" Jellal asked slightly curious as to what could make him ask for Jellal of all people to help him.

"Tartaros did this, well more like one of their members did. He destroyed the council HQ and killed everyone except myself in the process" Doranbolt admitted painfully almost wishing he had perished along with the others but remembered what council man Org(can't remember if that is right) had told him about living on to avenge them and stop Tartaros. Jellal, Meredy and Natsu were all unnerved at the thought one person was able to do this.

"Tartaros the guild made out of nothing but demons the most powerful dark guild in existence. But they are only half the reason I need your help, the other half was because I needed to get information on Tartaros' plan of action and only one person had that information but it came with a price" Doranbolt said in solemn tone while looking towards the ground. "A price?" Natsu asked causing the teleportation mage to look up at him with an unfamiliar gaze, "Natsu Dragneel?" he asked to which the dragonslayer just nodded, Doranbolt actually happy now as he had heard that Natsu had been expelled from Fairytail and hadn't heard anything about him for months now where it had got to the stage he started thinking he was dead. However Doranbolt didn't have time for this so he continued his explanation.

"Yes a price, the person with this information is formally known as Eric but you will all know him better as Cobra of Oracion Seis and his price for the information was…" "His freedom along with that of his guild" Doranbolt started before Natsu finished Doranbolt nodding to show that he was correct. "So what was this information and what do you want us to do?" Jellal asked in serious tone while thinking about how things will play out. "He revealed that Tartaros plan to use a council weapon that I've never even heard of called face, it's a wide scale magic pulse bomb that would wipe out all magic across the continent leaving all mages powerless while the demons of Tartaros would have a field day wiping us out as they don't use magic but something called curses. Furthermore that isn't there true goal currently Tartaros' master is sealed away by powerful magic seals that not even their temporary guild master and the strongest active demon in the dark guild can remove that is why Face is needed." Doranbolt said in a scared tone pausing at the last Second to collect himself.

"All the demons in Tartaros are demons from the book of Zeref and Tartaros' master is the most powerful of them all in fact he is the most powerful of all Zeref's creation and possibly the black wizard himself if Cobra's information is correct" Doranbolt said in an even more fearful tone while the three wizards of Crime Sorciere just stood in a mixture of fear and sock not Believe that there was another being human or not with enough power to surpass the black wizard himself. "As for what I want you to do, I want you to go and force the members of the Oracion Seis to join forces with you. You're in need of new members then turn them onto the right path and make them atone for their sins unite them against a common enemy." Doranbolt said seriously before teleporting away.

 **Somewhere in the middle of nowhere**

"You're okay with this Midnight? After all he only thought of us as pawns, I heard it myself" Cobra asked after striking down Brain the former leader or Oracion Seis, "If you heard it then it must be true" Midnight replied nonchalantly. So what are we going to do now that were free?" Racer asked the group, "I want to look for my little brother" Richard said followed by "I want to take a bath" Angel said she looked at herself feeling a bit of disgust as she realised that the entire time she had been put back in prison she wasn't able to take a bath. "You are free to do as you wish" Midnight replied in an uninterested tone while Cobra started sniffing the air picking up three scents two familiar and one unfamiliar.

Turning around he smiled when he saw the familiar face of Jellal, an unfamiliar pinkette and the other person who he had already identified as Natsu the Salamander Dragneel. However when he saw Natsu he burst out in Laughter getting the attention of the other four members of his guild. "What the hell happened to you Salamander?" Cobra said through fits of laughter while the other members looked on in surprise that this was the same Natsu Dragneel. "That's Salamander…he actually looks hot like that" Angel admitted surprising her guild mates, embarrassing the dragonslayer and leaving a rather pissed off Meredy. "Back off bitch he's mine!" Meredy replied once again shocking everyone present leaving a deadly silence between both sides and Meredy mentally cursing herself from acting out like that.

"Well okay that was different, anyway let me guess Doranbolt sent you after us to take us back?" Cobra said breaking the silence, "Yes and no, Doranbolt did send us but not to bring you back so listen up because I'm only going to say this once. "Join my guild Crime Sorciere, join us and all your past sins will be forgiven, join us and help us rid the world of evil and rid it of Zeref" Jellal said as he and Natsu stepped forward. "Heh and what if we refuse?" Cobra asked in slight amusement as he had a feeling of what the answer would be.

"Then we will defeat you and show the power of our guild as well as force you to join" Natsu said in excitement as he slammed his flaming fist into the metal palm of his other. "Now you're speaking my language" Racer said as he sped forward only to be met with a super sped fist to the face curtesy of a meteor fuelled Jellal. "Let's go Salamander!" Cobra shouted out as he charged forward with a poison dragon's claw attack while Natsu countered it with his own claw attack, "I can hear everything Salamander, I can hear her cries, their screams of pain as Tartaros picks off the fairies one by one" Cobra said with a smirk seeing Natsu's eyes widen in shock before he jumped away to gain distance.

"What the hell are you taking about?!" Natsu questioned in anger only causing Cobra's smirk to widen to nearly ear splitting proportions. "The lightning dragon has been poisoned, Titania, the demon and her sister have been captured and the rest are fighting desperately just to stay alive" Cobra said his grin not faltering until Natsu came at with such speed he was unable to follow and was hit by a crash imbued fist to the chest launched him flying backwards until he collided with the nearest boulder. "Jellal, Meredy handle these guys I've gotta help Mira and Lisanna!" Natsu shouted out before taking in off at inhuman speeds heading for Magnolia.

" **Please hang on guys"** Natsu desperately thought as he began to pick up speed using his Flames to propel him while Jellal kept the Oracion Seis that chose to fight busy, **"Hang on."**

 **End Chapter**

 **Yes finally got this chapter out of the way, I really enjoyed this chapter despite the numerous time skips but I needed them to get to where I am now. Any next chapter will be the Tartaros arc probably around just before the dragons show up and yes I've already planned on how that is going to go but you'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out what will happen because if any reviews ask me how I'm going to do this and that then the only response your getting is it's a secret however if there is something you didn't understand about this chapter then ask away. If any of you are upset with the way I described Gildarts' power the ask me why and I'll give you my reason which is back up from the anime and manga as well as information Hiro Mashima released about Gildarts. Finally I hoped you liked this chapter because I was a little stuck half way through it.**


	4. Chapter 4 Thunder Roars

**Well it's been a long time since I even looked at this story but I've been rethinking the way I want t write my chapters and this chapter will be the first of the new chapters, as each of my stories have different average chapter lengths I'll write a for this story as an example where the average length is 3.5-4k so in that case I'll write a single chapter that is 10.5-12k long before breaking it up into separate chapters and then posting the chapters when the demand for a new chapter gets really high, the way I see it working out will allow me to spend more time on my other stories as well as start new ones and continue with my college work, anyway I got yet another amusing troll message from guess who everyone's favourite troller** **DoomMarine54** **who believes he or she speaks for the entire fandom but quite frankly I actually enjoy their messages, yes they speak about how my stories are awful and how I shouldn't be writing fanfiction but something about seeing them just the way they are written brightens my day up. Anyway if you don't understand that alright I didn't really explain too good and now without further ado let the next chapter begin**

Natsu had been running as fast as his legs could carry him for hours now, he chose to ease off on his magic as he knew he would have to conserve it to fight the members of Tartaros. His entire journey consisted of either the sound of his flames erupting behind him or the constant clanging of his metal limb as well as the lack of company didn't alleviate Natsu's worries one bit and it only proved to aggravate him to immeasurable ends. He knew that when he arrived there was a good chance, no that was a definite possibility that he would get found out by the rest of the guild but after hearing that Lisanna and Mira were in danger he had to help even if it meant exposing himself to his ex-guild, he had to laugh albeit bitterly, life sure did love throwing him a curve ball

Natsu soon seen that his worries were justified as he came across the mixed ruins of magnolia and what he could make out as some cube looking thing, but that wasn't what got his attention. No what did that was the various fissures that all led to the dissipating body of the Celestial spirit King who was slowly turning to gold dust as he returned to the celestial spirit world. It was now Natsu knew that some serious shit had to be going down if the old stache face was getting involved, "Shit I'm too late, hold on Mira, Lisanna, everyone I'm on my way!" Natsu called out in a determined voice as he started running towards the ruins using his heightened senses to find the scents of his ex-guild mates.

Natsu didn't take long to locate his ex-guild mates or more specifically Mira, Lisanna and Elfman, the clanking of his arm alerting the other guild mates to his presence, "Who are you?" Romeo asked defensively however Natsu only had one thing on his mind. While he was glad Romeo, Cana and the others were safe he wanted to make sure Lisanna, Elfman and Mira were safe. Natsu just continued past Romeo, Cana and Macao still sniffing the air, "Natsu?" Cana questioned as she caught a glimpse of the silver haired stranger's familiar eyes, Natsu then stopped in front of a pile of rubble before he then held up his prosthetic arm. A white criss-cross pattern appeared on the rubble causing Cana to widen her eyes in shock as she recognised this power. "Crash magic" Cana exclaimed in shock seeing someone other than her father use the magic. The light coming from the rubble started to intensify until finally the rubble segmented into tiny small cubes revealing Elfman shielding Lisanna and a badly bruised Mirajane.

"Natsu" Mira said out weakly through half lidded eyes, even though she could barely see and he looked very different from the last time she seen him, only he could ever have that loving smile that she saw. "Is it really you?" Lisanna asked on the brink of tears before Natsu brought the two of them in for a hug "Yeah it's me" he replied in a caring tone tightening his grip on them causing Lisanna to feel the cold touch of the metal limb.

"Where's Laxus, Gajeel, Juvia, Wendy, Happy, Ice turd and Erza?" Natsu asked as he separated from the hurt causing Elfman to frown, "Laxus sacrificed himself to save a town and the thunder tribe be absorbing some magic barrier particles, Laxus was heavily poisoned and the thunder tribe and Yajima were poisoned pretty badly too. Old lady Porlyusica said if we got some blood from the guy that poisoned them she might be able to create an antidote so that's where Gajeel Juvia and Gray went but I have no Idea where Erza is and last time we checked Laxus was out cold but now he's gone we have no idea where he is, Wendy Happy and Carla went to take down face" Elfman admitted with a frown causing Natsu to click his tongue having a fair idea of what was going on here.

Just as Elfman finished talking a mid-sized lightning bolt crashed into the ground not too far away causing Natsu o smirk, "Figures he wouldn't take this sitting down even if his life is on the line" Natsu said causing the group to stand there in shock, "Are you saying Laxus is Fighting someone from Tartaros?" the group yelled in unison but then they felt a large amount of magic coming from the man identified as Natsu.

"Elfman take Mira, Lisanna and the others and get away from here I'm gonna help Laxus and take down Tartaros" Natsu said in a serious voice before his magic flared up even further as a mixture of crash and his dragonslayer magic. "No we're gonna stay a fight with you, these bastards have caused a lot of harm to our family!" Elfman almost practically roared at the dragonslayer, "Please guys I'm not asking you to run away, there's no way Wendy can destroy face because there's over 3000 0f those things across the continent, she's strong and smart and if no-one is guarding them then she should be able to destroy a few but if one of Tartaros' gates is guarding Face then she might not be able to destroy any" Natsu revealed in a serious tone causing the present members to tremble out of fear, out of fear for young Wendy and out of fear that there were over 3000 face devices across the continent.

"Natsu how do you know this?" Cana asked stepping forward, "Doranbolt survived the attack on the council and told me everything, when I last saw him he was working on a way to get word out across to the other guilds to get them to help, seems like Sabretooth is already here" Natsu revealed further shocking those present "Wait we have reinforcements?" Macao asked in disbelief thinking that this would be Fairytail's battle to fight alone "Who?" Romeo followed up with his question immediately. "The twin dragons, now if you'll excuse me I've wasted too much time, I've got some demons too crush" Natsu said before he took off like a rocket leaving everyone behind most with shocked expression but one smiling white headed barmaid and her family "Nice to know some things won't change" Mira said as she shakily stood up with the support of her sister, "Yeah, well I he was always like that even as a kid" Lisanna said warmly as she stared off in the direction Natsu took off in. "Lisanna we can't just wait around we gotta do something now!" Mira said before shrugging he sister away and taking off in the direction she hoped the Tartaros control room was in, "Mira, wait you're too injured right now, MIRA!" the younger Strauss called out in vain as she watched her older sister's figure fade in the distance.

 **Earlier with Gajeel and the others**

Gajeel had finally done it he had defeated Torafasu of the nine demon gates by absorbing the carbon in his curse water turning his iron scales into steel, although he wouldn't have been able to do a thing had it not been for Levy who came to his rescue when he was in some desperate need of oxygen as were the others. However even though Torafasu was defeated Gajeel is out of magic power, Gray was dragged off by that Silver guy and Juvia and Lucy have had their strength sapped by the dark water and are temporarily incapacitated.

However that isn't the most pressing issue, which in fact would be that one of the nine demon gates of Tartaros, Tempesta the immortal is standing behind Gajeel and hasn't had to use a bit of his power yet. "It would appear that you're out of power human" the etherious demon said in a smug voice raising his arm gathering a miniature cyclone around it causing Gajeel to widen his eyes in fear "Dammit!" he cursed as he waited for his fate which today appeared to have other ideas as bolt of lightning connected with ground between Tempesta and Gajeel and the others causing the etherious demon to jump back out of the way.

"What?" Gajeel opened his eyes and couldn't believe what he was seeing, standing right before him was Laxus and the amount of killing intent the blond was radiating was making the iron dragon shiver. "Are you okay Gajeel?" Laxus asked as he looked over his shoulder snapping Gajeel out of his daze, "Yeah but the others have seen better days, hey are you even fit enough to fight" Gajeel said causing Laxus to look behind Gajeel to see the practically motionless bodies of Juvia and Lucy causing him to tremble "Don't take your eyes off your opponent **Blaze!** " Tempesta shouted before charging at Laxus as whirlwind of flames cloaked the etherious demon body.

"…Again…" Laxus continued to tremble before he turned to face the incoming threat with his eyes closed and fist clenched, but he was not trembling in fear, no he was trembling from pure unadulterated rage and anger "AGAIN I WAS TOO LATE TO SAVE MY FAMILY!" the lightning dragon roared before a lightning cloaked fist made contact with the etherious demons face causing a shockwave to resound throughout the area before the demon was sent back at least 30 metres. "Amazing I had no idea he was this strong" Gajeel said in amazement completely astonished by how easily Laxus overpowered one of the nine demon gates, Laxus must have been okay if he was able to do that with one punch.

It took Tempesta a few moments too realise what had happened before he began to get up albeit shakily, "Cyclone!" Tempesta called out in a panicked voice as four tornadoes appeared in a box formation around Laxus and Gajeel. A golden energy started to engulf Laxus before it was followed up by arcing Lightning which soon attacked and dispersed the raging tornadoes causing Tempesta's eyes to widen Further and to slightly back up. giving Laxus his opening using all his strength he vaulted forward closing the distance between himself and the demon instantaneously before he brought another lightning imbued fist upon the demons skull the force of which implanted the demons body a couple of inches into the stone ground beneath, immediately after the successful hit Laxus gracefully jumped back to his previous position in front of Gajeel in the others taking up a protective position which caught both Gajeel's and the demon's attention.

" **Something's wrong why isn't he attacking?"** both thought in unison and it was then a memory of one of Tempesta's past lives came back causing him to look at Laxus with widened and fearful eyes Gajeel then noticed that Laxus' legs were slightly wobbling and his breathing seemed strange but he didn't have much time to think of that when he heard Tempesta shout out another attack **"Boulder!"** the etherious demon shouted causing a large boulder to fly towards Laxus and Gajeel, once again Laxus flared up his magic resulting in lightning covering his form before it made contact with the boulder causing it to shatter **"Boulders!"** the demon shouted causing the small pieces of debris from the boulder to sped towards Laxus resulting in the lightning mage once again flaring his magic up this time even higher this as to destroy the smaller boulders.

Tempesta took this as an opportunity to charge forward and when the smoke and dust from the debris cleared the demon was directly in front of an unfazed Laxus **"Twister!"** Tempesta called out as his right arm was covered in a miniature tornado that he brought in for an uppercut which Laxus leaned back out of the way to avoid while at the same time drawing back his right arm. Taking his left arm Tempesta had gathered another miniature tornado around it and was already thrusting it forward with as much power as he could muster to which Laxus met with an equally powerful Lightning imbued fist.

The two attacks cancelled each other out causing the owners to jump back a few feet from each other, "I remember you but it's impossible, are you even human? You absorbed my magic barrier particles, you should be dead so how are you able to still fight when you're still infected?!" Tempesta asked in an almost furious voice while Laxus just smirked and Gajeel looked at the lightning mage in disbelief before he noticed how shallow Laxus was breathing, "Now that you onto me guess I better finish you" Laxus said in a humoured tone before wiping a trickle of blood that escaped from the corner of his mouth.

" **Bind"** the demon said before a stream of fire erupted from his mouth and bound itself around Laxus like rope before the lightning mage was engulfed in Flames, "Laxus!" Gajeel shouted in a worried voice as the fire continued to burn around the mage who just stood there smirking "You think you can burn me with lukewarm flames?" Laxus said smug before Lightning surged all over his body before dispersing the flames and breaking the chains shocking the etherious demon and Gajeel.

Laxus immediately activated his **Lightning body** closing the distance between himself and the demon before the etherious could react, stopping half way Laxus bounced off of his right leg to spin and increase his momentum while he charged as much magic into his right fist as his body would allow him to in its current state "RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Laxus let out a fierce battle cry as his fist made contact with Tempesta's chest causing lightning to not only surge through the demon's body but to veer off in different directions, Gajeel could feel the sheer magic power that was packed into that single punch and it shocked him how huh Laxus was able to produce is his current condition **"I never knew Laxus was this strong"** Gajeel thought in shock.

Tempesta could only hold his ground for a few seconds but the force of the punch sent him flying into a mostly still intact wall with incredible force resulting in an explosion resounding throughout the area. Gajeel smirked he could see Laxus was breathing heavily but he still smirked to him Laxus had this won but Gajeel's smirk soon turned into a look of worry when he saw Laxus cough up blood and drop to one knee.

" **ugh…In that moment"** Laxus thought to himself back to the very moment his fist made contact with Tempesta's chest, at that exact moment Tempesta aimed for his weakened organs specifically his lungs leaving a dark purple nasty bruise. "You humans are all so foolish" they heard the familiar voice of Tempesta say as Laxus just glared at the demon's silhouette in the dust.

Tempesta then emerged from the dust with all his injuries healed, "What the hell is the guy really freakin immortal?" Gajeel asked in a feared voice. "The time of humans and magic has come to end, take comfort human after I end you you'll soon be reunited with your friends after I kill them" Tempesta said in a neutral tone as he began taking steps forward. Something inside Laxus snapped after hearing that, he knew his body couldn't go on any longer in the condition it was in, he knew if he pushed it any more than he already had he was a dead man but he'd be damned if he let this bastard lay a hand on his family.

Laxus legs wobbled as he struggled to get up causing the demon to smirk at the human's desperation, "…UUURRRGGGHHHH!" Slamming a lightning imbued fist into his knee Laxus stood tall shocking Tempesta "Before this body breaks I swear I'll destroy you with my own hands!" Laxus said in a dead serious tone as the demon and the dragon stared off at each other radiating their retrospective powers. "Idiot you can't be serious you'll die if you continue!" Gajeel shouted angrily, outraged that Laxus was making such a decision and that was practically the same as throwing his Life away, **"I know"** Laxus thought solemnly accepting his fate.

The two continued to stare at one another with hardened glares for a few more moments until Laxus made the first move and charged forward his body cloaked in as much magic as he could summon forth, Tempesta quickly crossed his arms in an x shaped pattern to block the attack, the recoil sent the recipient and the user skidding back, "Is that the best…ah…" **"RAGING BOLT!"** Laxus interrupted the demon as held up his left arm channelling as much magic as possible into a large glowing sphere in the sky before bringing his arm down in a swift motion resulting in the orb of golden lightning being dragged down towards Tempesta albeit not as swiftly as usual giving the demon ample time to dodge.

" **Pillar!"** the demon called out summoning a rock pillar from the ground, crossing his arms in a similar pattern to Tempesta Laxus blocked the pillar but the force of which sent him flying back into a wall although the lightning dragon didn't stay there for long, even though his body was practically decaying from the inside out and it would have been easier to just lay down and die Laxus wouldn't do it not because his pride wouldn't allow it but because not only his life but the lives of all those he cared about were on the line. **"Twister!"** the demon said as the same tornadoes from earlier raced forward at Laxus who arc his back slightly and started to inhale air before lightning filled his mouth **"LIGHTNING DRAGON ROAR!"** Laxus roared out as a stream of lightning intercepted the tornadoes effectively nullifying them causing a smoke screen to obscure Laxus' vision

" **Boom!"** he heard the demon say before an enormous fireball came through the smoke cloud taking Laxus by surprise before exploding on impact. "Pathetic is that all?" Tempesta mocked before Laxus charged again with another punch, this time the demon blocked it with a cyclone clad had fist, Laxus slightly backed away allowing the lightning dragon to flip for an electrified axle kick which Tempesta blocked in the same fashion as the punches "Pathetic human, your desperation tells me how scared you are" Tempesta said before delivering a devastating punch to Laxus' stomach resulting in the Lightning mage coughing up a larger amount of blood than last time. His vision was getting clouded, Laxus knew he wasn't going to hold out much longer and yet he still willed his body on.

Smirking Laxus spat out the blood in his mouth, "Scared, Hah you're the one who's runnin scared **"Lightning Dragon Jaw!"** Laxus shouted out with determination as he join his hands above his head allowing Lightning to gather and arc around them before slamming it down on Tempesta's head causing a pillar of lightning to shoot up and the demon to stumble back slightly before another pillar of earth slammed into Laxus once again causing him to crash into a wall.

Laxus stood tall once again looking as if nothing was wrong before cloaking his body in his lightning before launching himself at the demon again **"DRAGONSLAYER SECRET ART: ROARING THUNDER!"** Laxus roared out slaying one of his most powerful spells into Tempesta and although the spell was considerably weaker than usual the shockwave from the impact caused lots of debris to rise from the ground.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Laxus let out another battle cry as his pupils turned to white sclera, his body become weaker and weaker but his resolve only continued to grow from strength to strength, however unluckily for Laxus the shockwave created from the impact had created a perfect counter attack for the demon **"Boulders"** just like before the debris lifted off the ground and was flung towards Laxus, but unlike last time Laxus was too close to block the attack and was hit but the full brunt of the attack burying him underneath the debris against a wall from earlier.

"Laxus!" Gajeel called out in worry as he seen the heavily breathing downed form of the lightning dragonslayer. "Human I don't understand, your body is rotting from the inside out and your magic is all but gone what drives you to continue?" Tempesta couldn't help but ask as he walked closer and closer to Laxus' downed body. "I don't expect scum like you to understand" Laxus said in an exhausted voice causing Tempesta to snarl "I shall give you an ending fitting for you human" Tempesta said as a black energy cloaked his clawed hand before he punched down on where Laxus' heart would be causing the Lightning mage to cry out in Pain.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"LAXUS!"

Laxus saw everything, his life his family all his guild mates, everyone he cared about flash before his eyes, he cursed himself for being so weak, he still had so much he had to do, so much he had to atone for. All his life he grew up without a proper parent figure not counting Makarov, since the games and the utter beat down he gave his father's guild Laxus refused to believe his mother had died like Ivan told him as a child and he was determined to find her even if the old man wouldn't tell him. It was one of his many regrets, not finding out if his mother was indeed alive or not but one regret shadowed them all and that was not being strong enough to protect his family, **"I won't lose!"** Laxus shouted in his mind willing his consciousness back to the world of the living.

"…ugh…I won't lose to the same guy twice" Laxus said in a weak voice as he used his unburied hand to grab Tempesta's and attempt to lift it off, "Why won't you humans accept your fate and die?!" Tempesta said furiously as Laxus began charging up magic in his other arm and freed it from the rubble. The demon flailed wildly but Laxus' grip never faltered, suddenly Tempesta because of Laxus' grip managed to pull the lightning dragon out of the rubble while flailing around "Let go of me!" Tempesta roared in anger as he began to charge up an attack but Laxus had already beaten him to it.

" **LIGHTNING DRAGON IRON FIST!"**

With a solid lightning imbued uppercut Laxus raised the demon up a few feet while also managing to get him to cough up some blood which landed on his fur lined jacket. The thud of the demon's body was heard clearly by both slayers who now stared at Tempesta's downed body, "Ga...Hehe…Gajeel take this to old lady Porlyusica so she can help Freed and the others" Laxus said before collapsing down onto the ground. "Laxus" Gajeel called out as he ran over to his fellow slayer. "Oi hang in there" he said once he reached the blonde, "What are you waiting for get going" Laxus said in a slightly angry.

"None of you will be going anywhere" Tempesta said as he stood up reasonably unharmed, "I Tempesta the immortal of the nine demon gates will destroy you now, Hells core may have been destroyed but as my name suggests I am the most durable of the gates as my body receives a small amount of curse power from our Lord Mard Geer so if you plain on beating me then you'll have to do it in one move" Tempesta said smugly before he heard coughing coming from laughing followed by the blond spitting some blood to the side.

"Yeah I'll do just that" Laxus said with a smirk on his face as his eyes focused in on Tempesta who was now looking around him seeing all the puddles of water charged full of lightning and small golden magic circles placed all around him leaving him no place to escape **"WHEN?"**

" **LIGHTNING DRAGON ROAR!"** Laxus roared out sending a massive beam of lightning magic towards Tempesta that started off a chain reaction by conducting through the water and magic circles until Tempesta was surrounded by multiple Magic beams of the same size and power that had him cornered and were closing in fast. When the beam all met in the centre they combined into one massive column of golden magical energy surrounded by a net of lightning trapping the Etherious Demon inside. With his job done and no possible way to continue Laxus dropped to the ground unconscious with a smile on his face and blood staining the corners of his mouth.

"Well done human you defeated me, without hell's core there is now way for me to regenerate and the curse power from Lord Mard Geer won't be enough to save me, honestly I never dreamed there could be a human that powerful if that's what you could even call him" Tempesta said in a pained voice as his body lay paralysed and damaged without any means of repair. "Then why don't you just kick the bucket?" Gajeel shouted angrily not expecting an answer "however I can't allow you humans to interfere any further than you already have and that's why I'll take you with me" Tempesta said before his body started glowing and it turned into a blackish purple miasma.

But just as Gajeel think all Laxus' efforts are going to waste and all hope is lost the miasma suddenly freezes in an instant, holding out his hand Gajeel allows the glittering specs to fall upon his palm "Magic barrier particles?" Gajeel asks no-one in particular before he catches a scent "Gray"

"Gajeel, what happened is everyone alright?" Gray asked as he stepped forward with some weird mark on his arm, "we should be okay now but we need to get this idiot help he fought one of the gates while he was still poisoned. Although thanks to him we have the blood for the old hag…hey where are you going?" Gajeel started to explain things but then he saw Gray walking away. "I'm going to crush Tartaros with my own two hands" the ice mage shouted back before he disappeared out of sight.

Shortly after Levy, Lucy and Juvia came back around and Gajeel explained everything to them, but just as Gajeel was about to get to the part about Gray he caught an impossible scent freezing him mid-sentence. "Damn looks like I'm late well how is he?" the group heard a familiar voice asked but when they saw the source bar Gajeel they thought they were mistaken and were slightly on edge at the intrusion of the stranger.

"Salamander is that you?" Gajeel asked just to clarify, causing everyone's eyes to widen, "Yeah but can we leave the reunion for later on we're in trouble so tell me did how he is and did you get the blood?" Natsu said in a neutral tone, "I'm not sure how Laxus is but if we don't get him to Porlyusica or Wendy I don't think he'll make it, but somehow he managed to beat that bastard I couldn't believe my eyes, In the beginning you would've hardly thought he had been poisoned but I became very obvious as the fight dragged on, I felt so helpless not being able to do anything and now because of me Laxus might, he might…" Gajeel responded in a shaky voice as he couldn't bring himself to say that he may be the cause of one of his friend's death. "Let's not count Laxus out of the picture yet he's one tough son of a bitch remember he took you, me, Mystogan and Erza on and came out with only some cuts and burns, Laxus won't die over something like this" Natsu said with a faint smile before he got up and started walking around sniffing the air.

"Juvia can't believe her eyes, Juvia and the other thought you were dead" the water mage said speaking in her regular third person dialect. "That isn't true Juvia, Laxus, Gildarts, Mirajane, Lisanna and Elfman knew I was alive and let's just say I've been somewhere far away. But back to the matter at hand we still have the rest of Tartaros to deal with and….hang on minute" Natsu said before bring his index and middle finger to the side of his head for a telepathic link.

" **Natsu, Natsu can you hear me it's Doranbolt I have Wendy, Carla and Happy they're a little banged up but there fine" Doranbolt said through the link in a relieved voice** _ **"That's good Doranbolt, now what's the good news and what's the bad news?" Natsu asked knowing that couldn't be all.**_ **"No fooling you, good news is that Wendy managed to Defeat one of the nine demon gates and destroy a face monument, bad news is there is at least 2-3000 other across the entire continent, that's all for now I'll take care of Wendy and leave the Tartaros end of things to you good luck" Doranbolt said before cutting the link off.**

"What was that?" Lucy asked curiously, "Good news guys Wendy, Carla and Happy are safe Doranbolt has them" Natsu said getting a collective sigh of relief from the group, "bad news is that your info on FACE is outdated, FACE isn't a singular device, it's multiple devices across the continent somewhere between 2 and 3 thousand devices total, Wendy managed to destroy one as well as defeat one of the gates but as for the rest we're on our own, that's why we need to find Erza, Gray and the others and defeat Tartaros as quickly as possible, defeating Tartaros is the key to stopping face." Natsu said causing the group to have confused faces.

"But Juvia defeated the one control the Chairman's body so they shouldn't be able to activate face" Juvia said causing Natsu to scrunch his face up in concentration before clicking his metal thumb, "Mira explained earlier that one of the demons had an ability for absolute control of organic beings…Macro I think she said it was called, if the one with this Macro ability is alive or wasn't defeated then it's quite possible that they are manipulating the chairman's body" Natsu said in a serious tone causing everyone's jaw to drop, "what?" Natsu asked "When did you become so smart?" Lucy asked more like insulted.

"Recently" was Natsu's immediate response, his tone remained neutral and he didn't even seem angry about what she said "Oh yeah when did you burns heal I thought master and Erza said they'd leave permanent scares?" Natsu asked but Lucy shrugged not knowing the answer. "Speaking of Gray I realise I should have said this sooner but before you came along he saved us by freezing that bastards magic barrier particles and the burns he got from you were gone as well, it was strange his magic seemed different but he became crazy powerful I don't know why" Gajeel added in causing Juvia to sigh and tear up.

"Juvia knows why, the member of the nine Juvia defeated was controlling the body of Gray's father who was also one of the nine. He made a telepathic link with Juvia asking her to kill the one controlling the chairman but he knew he would die too if Juvia did that but he still wanted Juvia to do it so he could let Gray carry on his mission, to destroy Tartaros, if Juvia had to guess she'd say that before Silver lost control of his body he passed his devil slayer abilities and all his magic onto Gray" Juvia said causing some of the members to look at he in shock.

"So like when Laxus lent me all of his magic power on Tenrou to fight Hades, it will only be temporary so Gray will need to Hurry up and use his power wisely or he'll collapse from exhaustion afterwards and most likely only retain a small fraction of his father's magic but unlike me it won't be a mode but a complete fusion of the two magics giving him a power boost on his already existing power level" Natsu summed up shocking everyone once again, "Ok who are you and what have you done with the idiot we all know and love?" Lucy asked but got no reply as Natsu got up and started walking away making the celestial spirit mage slightly angry but before her or anyone else could ask what the hell had happened him they noticed Natsu had frozen and started trembling.

"What's wrong with Natsu?" Juvia asked Gajeel seeing as he'd probably have the best idea seeing as they're both dragonslayers, "hell if I know, he's probably just pissed now that the stripper's stronger than him" Gajeel mocked in an amused voice before he heard Natsu whisper, "Gajeel can't you hear?" Natsu asked catching Gajeel off-guard who then started tuning his heightened sense of hearing in before picking up a faint noise that caused him to feel a mixture of emotions, the most dominant of which fear.

"That voice I'd never forget it…..ACNOLOGIA!"

 **Okay here's this chapter done a before you hack into me about not updating my stories when you want me too I'm sorry but it's a writing thing and I could only write the stories I had a good vibe going with hope you understand. Like I stated at the start when you read this chapter the second maybe even third will be done it's just the way I'm going to be doing things now and sorry for minimal interaction between Natsu and the Strauss' for those of you who wanted to see it and for the minimal Natsu in general but I kinda got excited when I decided to write the Laxus Tempesta rematch which in my opinion was one of the best fights ever in Fairytail especially when you compare it to the 3 hit Ko first match between them when Laxus wasn't even trying and you say holy shit Laxus is beast but then you see this fight where Laxus is poisoned and probably reduced to way below half power and then you're like holy fuck this is god tier shit anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and till next time**


	5. Chapter 5 Hope Rises

**Like I said in my previous chapter this chapter has been done for a while….but because my laptop decided it wanted to fuck around it wiped all my stories off my memory pen and the computer hard drive so I had to re-write it which was quite troublesome even if I remembered the most of it. Anyway this was the reason as well as my teachers wanting work in earlier than usual for not updating my other stories. So I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it the first time round.**

"This voice I'd never forget it…Acnologia!"

Natsu shouted in disbelief and fear as he remembered how the black dragon defeated the Tenrou team so easily and was also the one who almost killed Gildarts and as powerful as he had become since their last encounter and as much as he hated to admit it, he knew the dragon far outclassed him in every aspect.

" **RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

The apocalyptic dragon let lose a roar that could shake your very soul as it glided towards Magnolia at insane speeds before charging up a breath which plough through the earth like it was nothing before a wave of explosion followed the impact. The scene looked like something from a nightmare and the only word to describe the scene before them allowed Acnologia to live up to his name, apocalyptic was all you could describe this insane or in the black dragon's case simple destruction.

" **Natsu I'm sorry things had to turn out like this"** the dragonslayer heard a deep all too familiar voice, "Igneel where are you? Igneel why can I her your voice?" Natsu out but before Natsu could make a move both he and Gajeel collapsed on to the ground groaning in pain clutching the left side of their chests. Causing the others to look on in shock and concern for their friends while still being aware of the flying terror that is Acnologia. "Are they reacting to Acnologia?" Lucy asked as she went to place a hand on Natsu shoulder but immediately retracted upon feeling the skin on her hand burning. "Hot!"

 **Meanwhile with Sting and Rouge**

Just like Natsu and Gajeel both Sting and Rogue find themselves in the same situation and truth they were grateful for Acnologia showing up and distracting their current enemy. A few metres in front of them stands a tall man with long black wild hair held up in a ponytail. He has coal black eyes and is wearing a tight red coloured shirt, grey trousers and brown suit shoes. Over his shirt he wears a long black trench like coat with flame designs on the bottom of it and in his left arm he clutches a brown hard case book close to his chest with big bold letters that say E.N.D on the front.

"What could have brought this demon upon? What will happen even I, Mard Geer don't know" the now known Mard Geer temporary guild master of Tartaros said with a slightly worried expression as he saw the black dragon aimlessly flying around and destroying anything it set its sight on causing the underworld to widen his eyes slightly before looking down at the book of E.N.D in his hand "Could he be searching for E.N.D?" the etherious demon asked before a smirk made its way onto his face, "How powerful are you Master E.N.D if Acnologia wishes to destroy you before you've even revived?" Mard Geer asked in a humoured tone before walking off to find somewhere with a better view of the scene leaving Sting and Rogue behind.

 **Back with Natsu and the others**

" **I really wish I could have told Natsu but everything kept getting in the way"** Natsu heard Igneel voice as memories of his childhood as fierce flames started building around him causing the other to back up in fear of getting burned and caused Juvia to shield Laxus' unconscious form from the flames. Overhead Acnologia sense a faint amount of a familiar power before hovering in mid-air while charging up another breath attack "Is he trying to destroy the entire city!" Lucy shouted in fear thinking that this was the end, after what he did to Tenrou Island she knew there was no way she'd be able to outrun the explosion from the attack. **"Natsu please understand this was the only way, I'm sorry but know that I have always been proud of you, that I've always been with you, watching over you. It will be okay I'll take care of Acnologia after that we can talk"** Igneel's voice said in a depressed tone before Natsu felt for the first time since the Godslayer on Tenrou fire magic that could burn him.

"AAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Natsu screamed out in pain when he felt an enormous amount of Magic power well up inside him before exploding outward in a burst of magnificent orange, red and yellow flames which caused the others to back away in fear off getting burned. Natsu however only stared up towards the flames in shock and awe as the flames began to morph into a familiar shape.

" **RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

"Igneel….Dad?" Natsu questioned in disbelief as he stared at the crimson red scaled dragon who equalled Acnologia in size and ferocity, **"Natsu we can talk later but right now I have to stop Acnologia!"** Igneel said before taking off at tremendous speeds towards Acnologia leaving a teared up Natsu behind. Igneel charged at Acnologia who had somehow failed to notice him at insane speed before ramming the black dragon in his underbelly forcing the air out of his massive lungs ending his attack before it could begin.

Seemingly as soon as Igneel appeared both Natsu and Gajeel didn't look in pain anymore who could only watch as the two titanic dragons charged at each other butting head the simple action of which caused loud powerful shockwaves to resound throughout the area. Standing up Natsu continued to watch his father and Acnologia exchange blows before wiping the tears away in his eyes, "Oi Salamander what the heel did that dragon mean when he said he was inside!" Gajeel shouted at the fire dragonslayer as he had been given more questions now about his own father Metalicanna.

"Beats me this is first I've heard of it…but I'm getting my answers" Natsu said in fed up voice as the object of his years of searching and reason for joining Fairytail had just showed up right before his eyes. "WHAT THE HELL…..IGNEEL!" Natsu shouted before using his flames to rocket off towards his father, Natsu shot through the sky like a shooting star as his flames engulfed his form allowing everyone to see but two people were beyond shocked to see the flaming form and unmistakable voice of the Salamander in the air.

"Natsu?" Erza and Happy both asked in disbelief as they saw Natsu flying towards the red dragon, currently Erza was in Tartaros' control room squaring off against Kyouka another one of the nine demon gates but both were too shocked to continue their battle with the appearance of the dragons, Kyouka hadn't an idea what was going on but if Acnologia and another dragon that appeared to be on par with a being said to be equal in power if not more than lord Zeref, but as the only one of the nine left it was her duty to make sure her and the others are returned to their lord but how could she do that with two dragons duking it out overhead.

Erza on the other hand felt guilt more than any other feeling right now, she couldn't believe she let something manipulate her trust in Natsu, and like always she solely took the blame on herself. Happy was on the verge of tears the closest person he had to a father, his best friend and partner who he believed to be dead suddenly appears before his eyes he couldn't contain himself.

" **Kyouka can you hear me?"** the female etherious heard Mard Geer's voice ask her through a mind link **"Master Mard Geer forgive me the Face project has because of me"** Kyouka said in a fearful tone, fearing the punishment she would receive **"No the face project will proceed as planned, the dragons are but a nuisance and once face activates they shall be as powerless as the humans"** Mard Geer said as he stared at his opponent who was mildly amusing him with his attempts to defeat him.

" **But without Sayla we won't…" "No you shall become the key to activate face, form a link with face a speed up its activation"** Mard Geer interrupted Kyouka shocking her at what he wished for her to do **"Master if I do that I will die"** Kyouka replied in a nervous tone **"So, are you telling me you're afraid of death?"** Mard Geer said in a harsh tone causing a chill to go up her spine **"….No master I am not, all is for Zeref, so my life is meaningless"** Kyouka replied before jumping up on a large globe like map with multiple markers on it and stabbed her claw like hand into it causing a surge of power to fill the area gaining everyone's attention before they saw Kyouka being engulfed in a green light.

"What she doing?" Erza asked but no-one was able to answer her as she had to defend herself or at least that's what she thought she was doing. "Foolish human you have yet to learn the terror that is my true etherious form" Kyouka said as she landed behind Erza completely transformed. The next thing the scarlet haired knight knew was that her sword had shattered which was soon followed by her armour, one of her strongest armours. Armordura Fairy was completely destroyed in one attack which elected shocked faces from everyone present.

 **At the same time with Natsu**

"IGNEEL!" Natsu shouted out gaining his father's attention, **"Natsu what are you doing?! I said we'd talk later!"** Igneel bellowed furiously at his son who had clung onto one of his large scales, "No were talking now, what happened on July 7th X777? Where did you go? Where are Gajeel's and Wendy's dragons!?" Natsu asked just as furiously as his father. **"No Natsu we….dammit!"** Igneel started before he had to dodge an apocalypse dragon claw attack from Acnologia which cause Natsu to lose his balance a fall into the path of Acnologia's jaws.

Luckily Igneel was faster than the black Dragon **"NATSU!"** the red dragon called out in worry before he grabbed his son and pulled him back out of the way before unleashing a devastating breath attack on the black dragon, Acnologia continued to charge into the immense flames which were so strong that the other guild members could feel the heat and it almost made them pass out despite the dragons being several hundred metres away in the air.

However there were more impressed when they saw Acnologia's body being sent flying down to earth resulting in a large explosion, "Amazing" was the only thing he could say unable to comprehend how far behind his father in terms of power he was, **"No that didn't even hurt him!"** Igneel revealed in a steady tone shocking Natsu thinking that there was no creature nor monstrosity could survive such an attack let alone not be hurt. True to Igneel's word Natsu could hear the black dragon's breathing as well as see a pair of bead like white eyes shining through the dust

" **RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

Acnologia roared before extending its wings showing that it was completely unharmed, the only difference is that he was extremely pissed now. "He used his wings to block the attack!" Natsu said in total disbelief and also slight amazement. **"Natsu I need you to do something for me"** Igneel said gaining a confused look from his son, **"You're part of a guild are you not?"** the red dragon asked while Natsu scratched the back of his head "Well it complicated I was a part of Fairytail, but now I'm part of another guild called Crime Sorciere but we aren't exactly legal" Natsu said causing a tick mark to appear on his father's head.

" **I know what bloody guild you work for, I seen everything….everything you brat, I never asked for your life story I already lived through that, I just asked were you a part of a damn guild….oh yeah me and you are gonna a talk about a specific pink haired guild mate"** Igneel said in a stern voice but added in the last part in an almost teasing voice, but because Natsu is Natsu the implication flew right over his "Oh Meredy yeah she awesome isn't she" Natsu said with a goofy grin causing his father to sweat drop **"Like I said we'll talk later, right now I need you to find and bring me the book of E.N.D, don't destroy it don't even open it just steal it from the guild master and bring it to me, you're the only one who can do it"** Igneel said in a calm voice.

"What do I get in return?" Natsu asked infuriating his father **"You impudent brat what the hell do you mean what do you get in return!"** Igneel shouted at his son while Acnologia slowly ascended towards them, "Well like you said I'm part of a guild and your enlisting my help so what do I get out of it?" Natsu said sarcastically, **"You get to know everything you ever wanted to know, everything you want to know about you, me and the other dragons, that is your reward"** Igneel said causing Natsu to smile "Guess I got no choice then…..Alright Igneel let's go!" Natsu shouted before Igneel cloaked his hand in fire and threw Natsu back down towards the ruins of the cube at tremendous speed.

As Natsu rocketed towards the ground his father's flames surrounding his as he did, he could feel the heat from the flames burn away the silver hair dye causing it to return once more to its original pink. An explosion followed as Natsu impacted with the ground "Dammit talk about over kill, he didn't have to throw me that hard…ah shit my hairs back to normal well I guess it doesn't matter since everyone probably knows I'm alive now" Natsu said before ruffling his hair back into its usual wild state.

Natsu took one last glance up at Igneel who was in a heated exchange of titanic blows with Acnologia with neither dragon showing any kind of pain or fatigue before sprinting off in the direction he saw some explosions occur. Acnologia and Igneel continued to exchange blows the shockwaves of which dispersed cloud cover and tore up the earth beneath them.

" **Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"** Igneel shouted out cloaking his claw in his magnificent flames before it connect with the jaw of a charging Acnologia, the black dragon grunted in pain as he was sent back by the force. By the time Acnologia had recovered Igneel was out of sight causing the black dragon to look around frantically for the flame dragon king but he still couldn't see him.

Acnologia growled out furiously when he felt two large clawed arms restrict his movement, the black dragon struggled but Igneel had him in a deadlock and wasn't letting go anytime soon, immediately the crimson dragon started ascending further and further into the sky before slowing up to do a backward spiral loop and plummet back towards the ground at insane speeds while spiralling around in circles increasing his momentum, as if the addition of Acnologia's weight hadn't added to the momentum enough already and the ground was fast approaching **"Fire Dragon's Seismic Impact!"** The flame king roared out over Acnologia's deafening roar. **(A/N: just imagine Charizard's Seismic Toss attack)**

The two dragons crashed through the ground with a large explosion and shockwave following before the came out inside a massive underground cavern beneath Magnolia. Acnologia slowly pressed itself up from the water filled cavern that sparkled with light as what appeared to be thousands of gems reflected light off one another.

The black dragon stood on its hind legs now sporting a few damaged scales, scuff marks and a burn mark or two, while its face seemed emotionless Igneel could tell from the aura the dragon was emanating that it was time the two were gonna start fighting a bit more seriously **"Ho, getting a bit excited are we? Acnologia"** Igneel asked with a quirked scaly brow, however he received no answer from the black dragon and instead received an iron fist attack to his jaw sending him flying through the a few stone pillars.

Igneel smirked and immediately regained his composure and used one of the stone pillars to bounce off against and flew towards Acnologia, both dragons charged at each other meeting in the middle before they head butted each other. Those above ground could scarcely believe the power these creatures, no these monsters were creating, every impact they could feel the earth shake and tremble under the pressure.

"Is this truly the power of a dragon?" Lisanna asked in disbelief and fear, although slight comfort came to her when she remembered that they had Igneel on their side. "Guys we can't worry about Acnologia we have to focus on the job at hand, Igneel can handle Acnologia…." Lisanna started but was cut off when she saw the flashes of red and blue seep through cracks in the earth which were created by the underground impacts, this followed by both Igneel and Acnologia erupted out from the ground causing gusts and gales all around the area.

The two dragons stared at each other both covered in damaged scales, gashes and bruises, although neither dragon hadn't drawn blood from the other yet, **"To think that dragons still existed in this world….how unpleasant"** Acnologia spoke in a calm voice causing Igneel to smirk at his opponent, **"Finally talking Acnologia, ready to fight for real now?"** Igneel said baring his fanged teeth at the black dragon. **"It I my goal to rid the world of all dragons….I see you now before me and I consider you a worthy!"** Acnologia roared out louder in the same tone as earlier, **"I've waited impatiently for this day Acnologia…..LETS GO!"** Igneel shouted in response before the two dragons resumed their battle.

 **At the same time with Gray and the twin Dragons**

Currently Gray with his newfound devil slayer abilities had been fighting a losing battle against the underworld king Mard Geer, as powerful as he thought he was, Gray was still no match for Mard Geer…alone that was. Thankfully just before Mard Geer could finish Gray off Sting and Rogue saved his ass before the three decided to take him on together.

" **Ice Devil's Frozen Fist!"** the ice mage shouted as he jumped towards a smirking Mard Geer who simply raised one of his arms up collected a white and grey energy around it before palming Grew into the ground **"Shadow Dragon's Crushing Fang!"** Rogue shouted out as he materialized from the shadows slightly taking Mard Geer by surprised who once again used one hand using it to swipe away the attack **"Ice Devil's Rage!"** the ice mage followed up send a beam of light blue purplish magic filled with thousands of razor sharp ice shards at the underworld King at close range Forcing him back slightly giving Sting his opportunity **"White Dragon's Holy Claw!"** the blond shouted out as he twirled around mid-air to gain momentum with holy light magic gathering around right foot before he slammed it into the centre of Mard Geer's chest sending him flying through several mostly intact structures.

Gray grinned thinking there was no way anyone could take that sort of onslaught, however his smirk was gone when he felt a bone chilling presence emanate a dark aura from within the dust cloud, a wave of power dispersed the dust revealing Mard Geer still lodged in a wall "hehe, I finally get why Kyouka believes you human to be worthy entertainment, how long, how long has it been since I Mard Geer felt this emotion" Mard Geer said in a deathly came voice before swiftly raising his head up revealing a psychotic look on his face, grinning evilly with his black eyes now with a glow of silver within them.

Effortlessly he dislodged himself from the wall and started walking forward "Two dragons in the sky and 2 children of dragons are before me, how many more are scurrying around my castle….It infuriating" the underworld king said in a tone that sent shivers down the trio's spine, "For the longest time I've sealed my emotions away, so long that I had almost forgot I possessed them. I dislike emotion but in particular I detest anger, anger in particularly is a bad and troublesome emotion it distracts us, clouds our judgement and forces to make nonsensical and irrational decision hence why I tried to detach myself from them…..but as you humans say it's good to let loose every once in a while" Mard Geer said in his usual calm voice before he set the book of E.N.D on top of a broken column.

"Master E.N.D please wait here for me while I Mard Geer eradicate the vermin" Mard Geer said as he bowed to the book before taking a seat in his still intact chair, "Finally taking us seriously now?!" Sting shouted at the demon king, **"Thorns!"** Mard Geer said calmly as more thorns than before erupted from the ground so fast that the trio of slayers hadn't any time to dodge "I have yet to show you my etherious form and this is the best that the three of you can do, I may have gotten too excited because now I'm quite disappointed, although your pained expressions are quite amusing" the etherious demon said with a smirk on his features making Gray pissed off to now ends.

"Don't you dare make light of us!" Gray shouted angrily before jumping up and Grabbing onto one of the thorns, then jumping from thorn to thorn he agilely made his way towards Mard Geer who made no effort to dodge him **"Ice Devil's….ugh"** Gray started as he closed in on Mad Geer but he was unable to cast his attack as he was back handed into an adjacent wall, **"Bloom!"** the etherious demon called out as he pointed his left index and middle finger towards Sting and Rogue causing a red rose to appear on the left side of their chest before it exploded.

" **Ice-Make; Cold Excalibur!"** Gray shouted before making a large sword out of light blueish purple ice and using both hands brought it down in an attempt to strike Mard Geer who just raised a single hand and caught the ice blade, **"And Ice Devil's Rage!"** Gray then followed up with a breath attack aimed not at Mard Geer but the ground beneath him, the force of the attack caused both Gray and Mard Geer who soon swatted Gray to the side into the air.

"Sting, Rogue do it!" Gray called out before he made contact with a wall causing Mard Geer to look in the direction of the twins dragons who got the message and had already started there unison raid causing their magic to flare up and form massive orbs of their retrospective elements behind them increasing the pressure in the area drastically. The orbs of light and dark then condensed down into smaller version of themselves in the palm of their owner's outstretched hands before they started to combine into one slightly larger multi-coloured ball causing the pressure to increase further.

" **Holy Shadow Dragon Fang Flash!"** the twin dragon called out in unison as they trust their arms forward in perfect sync causing a massive stream of mixed white and black energy to spiral powerfully towards the underworld king who wasn't even fazed by the attack. "Light and Darkness, it's powerful as well as beautiful…however let me show you what I can do with it" Mard Geer said as he steadied himself in mid-air and placed his hands in a position similar to the fairy law position and instead of producing light "Did he absorb our spell?!" Sting shouted in disbelief as he and rogue as they watched one of their most powerful combination spells get absorbed into the underworld king's hands before he pressed them together and dispersed the magic.

" **Ice Devil's Demolition Hammer!"** Gray shouted out from up behind Mard Geer as he brought his right fist back and started gather an immense amount of devil slayer magic behind before throwing his fist forward but before it could even make contact Mard Geer Grabbed Gray's wrist and threw him down into the ground before he landed gracefully in his throne with his right leg crossed over the other and leaning the side of his face on his right hand.

"As much as I'm enjoying this one sided fight, I could end this fight by killing the three of you immediately that would be too easy and I've decided that I'd like to indulge myself in what you humans would call fun by playing a little game of cat and mouse. However I highly doubt that you would let me fight you one on one so in that case I'll have 'him' distract you two while I kill the devil slayer" Mard Geer said with smirk as he lift his left hand up with his open palm facing towards the ground causing a summoning circle to appear.

"You summoned me master" a deep familiar said causing Sting and Rogue to stare in disbelief at its source "Impossible!" the dragons called out in unison "I see you've been doing well brat, to think you would actually become the master of Sabretooth, what a weak guild it must have become" the voice said in a harsh tone directed towards Sting, "Jiemma I would like for you to keep these two busy while I deal with the traitors spawn" Mard Geer said to Jiemma Orlando previous guild master who had been thought to be dead.

"So you're the reason why Lady Minerva joined Tartaros!?" Rogue shouted furiously towards Jiemma who had been like Minerva turned into a demon but looked indifferent about the whole situation, "And what off it she is my daughter, I may use her life as I please" Jiemma said shocking both dragons before he charged at the dazed pair.

"Oi snap out of it, don't listen to a word this shit bag says!" Gray shouted as he met Jiemma's attack with one of his own but was quickly being overpowered by the ex-guild master. "I ain't got beef with you kid so get lost" Jiemma said as he added more force to his attack before completely pushing through Gray's attack sending him flying away crashing through a wall causing Mard Geer to smirk "Suppose I better begin my hunt" he said before walking in the direction Gray flew off in. "Very well master I shall occupy these pair while you do as you please" Jiemma said as he stalked towards Sting and Rogue both of whom were now in their own fighting stances.

 **With Jellal, Merudy and Oracion Seis**

Jellal had been badly injured after his battle with four members of the Oracion Seis but after a Grand Chariot and Sema **(A/N: Star destroyer in English translation)** he managed to defeat them but had badly damaged his eyes in doing so in order to escape Midnight's/Macbeth's nightmare illusion. Initially under the impression that Jellal had made some deal to take them back to prison for his and Meredy's own prison the Oracion Seis bar Richard were ready to beg for him to take their life. They were shocked to find out that Jellal wanted them to join his independent guild Crime Sorciere for them to atone for their sins and to fight against Zeref.

Now we find the slightly larger Crime Sorciere inside a building waiting out a storm, Jellal is resting not so peacefully as his pain is evident in the groans he's making as he is sleeping luckily Richard has some experience in medical care. Meredy while worried about Jellal can't help but worry about Natsu, she had known Jellal for the best part of six years and even though she had only spent a few weeks with Natsu, she had never gotten so close to anybody but Ultear in such a short amount of time and the appearance of the dragons in the distance didn't alleviate her worries.

"Oi Meredy what's wrong?" Angel asked, "Oh Angel, well it's Natsu I'm worried about him" Meredy responded as she watched in the distance able to feel the magic power of the dragons from miles away, even though she and the others were very far away the sight of the blue and red explosions from the collisions of their retrospective breath attacks was a sight to behold. "So you and him are a thing?" Angel asked in teasing tone, "W-What no we aren't like that" Meredy responded with a flushed expression, "They so are" Jellal said in his sleep causing some of the Cobra and Racer to burst into laughter while Macbeth stifled his own laugh.

"Were not like that swear" Meredy said trying to sound serious about the whole situation, "Oh then you wouldn't mind if I rode the dragon?" Angel asked in a teasing manner wanting to see how far she could take this…which wasn't very far as she found herself surround by several glowing teal swords, "Bitch back off my man!" Meredy shouted fiercely as she grabbed Angel by her feather dress causing her to laugh "I knew it I so knew, you want him to bang you so bad" she said through her laughter causing Meredy to light like a radioactive tomato.

"There's no point denying it pinkey I can hear it, all of it and quite frankly some of it is very disturbing" Cobra said before Meredy could argue and confirming Angel's suspicions, "I must admit even if you're not a legal guild I'm already starting to wish we had escaped that damned tower and joined a legal guild or at least one like this" Macbeth said to Meredy while the others just smiled. "Yeah maybe we might have found something worthwhile to do with our lives and I might have found my sister" Angel added as Meredy looked at her in slight confusion, "You have a sister?" she asked not remembering any information about Angel ever having a family when she was a part of the Baram Alliance, "Yeah although I don't exactly remember much about, heck I don't even remember her name all I remember is what she looks like, I don't even know if she's alive" Angel said in a saddened tone.

"Maybe Natsu can help" Meredy said causing Angel and the rest of the Seis (well the five that were alive) to look at her as if she had grown a second head, "How could the Salamander help?" Macbeth asked in a puzzled manner, "While all dragonslayers, 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation have great senses of smell Natsu has a sense of smell that puts all others to shame, he never forgets a scent and can compare one scent to anther easily, plus he's been all over the continent so if he's met your sister all he has to do is give you a sniff and hey presto we'll know…it worth a shot right?" Meredy said in an upbeat tone while the Angel looked at her in slight disbelief.

Angel was unsure how to respond to that, somehow Meredy had managed to make it sound sexual while also making Natsu out to be some sort of blood hound "I suppose it's worth a shot but did you honestly have to phrase it like you did?" Angel did which caused Meredy to look at here with a confused face before she went back to looking at the dragons battling in the distance, "Look if you worried about Salamander you shouldn't be I can hear it, one of those dragons is Acnologia the other is the Flame Dragon King so it must have something to do with Salamander, he should be okay besides he's gotten plenty stronger since the last time we fought " Cobra said in an assuring manner, although still not a fan of Natsu Cobra could read the mood of the pinkette and if he was going to be her guild mate he was going to have to learn to show sympathy and support so why not now.

"That's Igneel? Meredy said in total disbelief and also major relief because if what Cobra was saying was true and Natsu's stories of his dragon father's strength were true then it most likely rivalled Acnologia maybe even more. That seemed to do it for Meredy as the ex-dark guild members sensed her worry for Natsu dissipate **"Natsu please come back to me"**

 **Back with Gray in the ruins of Magnolia**

Slowly the ice mage emerged from a pile of rubble covered in very noticeable bruising and was bleeding from a cut above his right eyebrow and his bottom lip, "Damn that sucked" the raven haired mage said as he fell to his knees trying to regain his breathe, however his rest was cut short as that all too familiar bone chilling presence made itself known, Gray didn't even have to look up he could see and knee who the owner of the brown suit shoes were a couple of metres away.

"For the longest time I knew your father was killing demons within our factions and I let him do as he pleased because It gave me a sort of amusement watching a human possess devil slayer magic with the goal of killing master E.N.D, such nonsense. Of course our master is a demon that possesses flame curses but what would make him or even you think that they could defeat master E.N.D when he is Lord Zeref's most powerful creation, master E.N.D is more powerful than I that much I know however neither I nor any of the other gates know the true extent of his powers so what hope do would you humans have even with magic against such a force?" Mard Geer said in a strong tone as he started walking closer to Gray who didn't even make an effort to get up as he was completely paralyzed by the killing aura the demon king was emanating.

"Rejoice human shall reunite you with your father and your friends shall soon join you" Mard Geer said as he stopped a few feet away from Gray while charging up his curse power in his outstretched right hand. Gray closed his eyes and waited for the decisive blow…but it never came instead he was blown back a shockwave from an unmistakable magical presence **"Crash magic?"** the ice mage thought to himself as he gazed up at where Mard Geer was to see a large cloud of dust with the only visible object a tattered cloak blowing in the breeze, "Gildarts" Gray said with a sigh of relief thinking things were finally starting to go his way.

"How many times is this that I've saved your ass now…Ice princess?" a familiar voice called out snapping Gray back to reality, the ice mage then saw a shockingly familiar head of pink hair that could only belong to one person "N-N-Na-Na" Gray stuttered in an effort to say his name, "Yes that's it, just three more letters" Natsu teased as he turned to Gray noticing that his burn marks were also gone which caused him to smile.

Natsu swiftly turned back around when he felt an explosion of energy come from where Mard Geer had landed, "HAHAHA! How long has it been since I've felt my blood boil like this, how long since I Mard Geer have seen my own blood" Mard Geer said in the same psychotic tone as before as he wiped away the trickle of blood that came from the corner of his mouth, "Gray we're gonna have to take him together" Natsu said as he felt the killing aura come from the underworld king, Gray didn't speak but instead nodded in response before walking over beside Natsu and getting back into a fighting stance.

" **Excellent, excellent, show me humans, show me how far you can push me, show me the extent of your power ETHERIOUS FORM!"** Mard Geer yelled out before he was engulfed in a pillar of white and silver energy that distorted the figure of his silhouette and caused an immense pressure to build up in the area, "He's changing!" Natsu shouted as both he and Gray started backing up. The pillar of energy dispersed revealing a not so human Mard Geer.

The underworld king stood almost twice as tall as Natsu and Gray now, his body clad in red plate like armour almost flame like in design. His chest was a cream colour and outlined the defined muscles on it, his head now appeared to be shaped like a sort of helmet with to long red horn like protrusions pointing out from the back of it before joining together at the chin. His mouth was covered by what appeared to be a gold coloured visor and his eyes were little more than black slits in red sclera surrounded by more black. From his back sprouted to large bony red wings similar to Igneel's except the membrane was pitch black.

" **NOW FACE YOUR END HUMANS FOR I AM MARD GEER THE ABSOLUTE DEMON!"**

 **Chapter end**

 **Well how did you like that, now like I said I had to re write this because of my computer so this is the reason why I didn't start any of my other chapters sooner as well as I had decided since the chapter before this one was almost 2k longer that I need to add something to it which was the Igneel vs Acnologia bit and the small Jellal, Merudy and Oracion Seis bit. Any ways sorry but my updates have been slow because my internet is temporarily offline so I have to use the computers at college to uploads my documents and because of where I go to college people are extremely judgemental and tend to make big deals of things and single people out but especially things like anime and manga so I have to be careful when I'm updating anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter till next time.**


	6. Chapter 6 Drop of Flames

**Yes ok were back to B.B.F.N.F about time right, yeah I'm sorry no excuses really I mean I even posted a new story when I still have already existing unfinished ones but I couldn't help myself so what can you do? But now that I've done that I won't be posting any new stories until at least one or two of my existing stories is finished and judging by how I want them to pan out the 1** **st** **to be finished should be my Natsu/Ur story it could be finished in the next 3-4 chapters as I plan to only to up to the end of the Tartaros arc. Hey what about Fairytail chapter 471 I thought it was amazing I won't reveal any spoilers but just saying get on that shit it along with 470 have been the best chapters in a long time and now I super psyched for chapter 472 because 471 has got me speculating so much for future chapters. Anyway all things aside let's get on with the story**

" **NOW FACE YOUR END HUMANS FOR I AM MARD GEER THE ABSOLUTE DEMON!"** the etherious demon shouted in a powerful voice before taking off into the air above both slayers who got themselves ready for the battle of a lifetime. "You better be ready Gray" Natsu said in a serious voice as he began charging up his crash infused dragonslayer magic surrounding him in a mixed aura of white and orangey red.

"I was just about to tell you the same, let's see what you can do, Natsu" the ice mage replied before he charged up his devil slayer magic cloaking him in an icy blue aura and mist as well as causing his right eye to take on a glint of crimson. **"Thorns!"** placing his left hand forward Mard summoned a colossal amount of thorns that made their way towards both Natsu and Gray who responded by pulling their right hands close to their chest cloaked in their retrospective elements before swinging to the side shouting

" **BURN!"**

" **FREEZE!"**

This caused the thorns to do just that and effectively neutralizing their threat, "Hoh not bad humans let's see what else you're capable of" Mard Geer said in an amused tone before placing his right hand out to the demon's side causing a large portal of the silverfish white energy to appear **"Yddrasil!"** almost immediately a massive plant like column was sent towards the slayer at insane speeds.

"HHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" both slayer gave a battle cry in unison before once again cloaking their fists in their retrospective elements and beginning their assault on the plant like column. Shockwaves could be seen rippling through the area from the force Natsu and Gray were countering the attack and slowly but surely Mard Geer's attack began to give way under the pressure and power caused by their strikes which could be seen via the visible cracks forming on the plant like structure until it eventually shattered.

" **Ice-make Gugnir!"** the devil slayer shouted out summoning a massive pillar of ice from the ground that surged skyward towards Mard Geer who easily dodged the attack but before he could taunt the ice wizard on his fruitless efforts he saw an orange glow emanate from inside the pillar beside before it burst open revealing a pink haired dragonslayer that the demon hadn't noticed gone missing.

" **Flaming Crash Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"** Gathering crash magic in one hand and dragon flames in the other Natsu combined the two together into a large ball of crash magic and dragon fire before throwing it at the stunned demon sending him spiralling towards the ground. **"Ice Devil's Sub Zero Freeze Arrows!"** seeing the demon spiralling towards the grounds Gray casted one of his devil slayer spells sending multiple ice arrows towards and making contact with Mard Geer judging by the growls of pain.

Lots of dust and debris was kicked up from the force of the impact and now Natsu and Gray stood side by side waiting to see the results of their attack although from Natsu from his experience up on the mountain with Gildarts he knew that the battle was just beginning.

"Get ready" Natsu said in a dead serious tone confusing Gray, "What are you talking about I hit him dead on with my devil slayer magic?" Gray asked but he soon got the answer in the form of gale force winds causing him to look back towards where the demon was to see a barely scathed Mard Geer resulting in his eyes widening. However before either of the two slayers could react the etherious demon had closed the distance between them and grabbed both Natsu and Gray by the face.

"Now let's go for a little fly shall we" Mard Geer said in a psychotic tone before pulling up and rocketing up into the sky the g-force of which having terrible effects on both wizard's bodies. It only lasted for seconds before Mard did an aerial back flip and began plummeting towards the ground causing both slayer's eyes to widen. "I'LL GRIND BOTH OF YOU TO DUST!" the etherious shouted in pure rage before he simultaneously straightened out along the ground and slammed both wizards into the ground still holding onto them while fly along causing the ground to act as a meat grinder of sort as it pummelled both their bodies.

But Natsu and Gray had other plans as they got one hand each and pulled themselves up before striking Mard Geer much to the demon's surprise in the back of the head before jumping back to safety while the demon continued to skid along the ground for a few metres before coming to a stop now with a few visible scuffs on his body.

Mard Geer stood up and ascended into the sky once more this time putting both hands out at his sides causing to silvery white portals to appear **"Infinite Thorns!"** angrier than ever Mard called out one of his more advanced variations of his curse resulting in arrow head shaped silvery white projectiles raining down from the portal. **"Ice-make Shield!"** seeing no way to dodge all of the projectiles Gray created a massive shield of purplish ice large enough to cover himself and Natsu.

However there seemed to be no end to Mard Geer's attack and Natsu could see Gray's shield was cracking bit by bit so it would only be a matter of time before it got to them. "Gray this isn't working at this rate were going to end up skewered!" Natsu shouted out getting on the ice mages nerves, "Well if you have a better plan I'd love to hear ash breathe!" right now Gray was not in the mood to be criticized on his decisions as he saw this as the only viable method to protect themselves against the attack.

"Lucky for you I do, make the shield big enough so I can get over to that pile of rubble and leave the rest to me" Natsu said in a smug tone while pointing to a large pile of rubble to the left of the ice shield, "Fine but just make sure you stop him quickly I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep the shield together for… **Expand!** " Gray replied through his grunting while pouring enough magic into the shield to keep it solid and expand it enough so that Natsu would be able to get to where he wanted.

This didn't go unnoticed by Mard Geer but he paid no mind to it seeing as there was nothing they could do in his mind to prevent their inevitable defeat. "I'll admit human futile as it is your perseverance is admirable in the face of such overwhelming odds" the etherious demons said in an amused tone with closed eyes but soon felt the wind taken out of him **"CRASH!"** while nowhere near a powerful as Gildarts Natsu sent a still immensely powerful wave of crash magic that ploughed into Mard Geer sending the etherious demon flying back through a few still intact wall before he finally was lodged in the fifth wall with very notable injuries.

Gray was left speechless, the shockwave from the spell was enormous so much so that it was enough to shatter his ice shield and force him back a few feet. "Get up Gray this still isn't over!" Natsu shouted over to his temporary partner sensing the phenomenal increase in killing intent causing to look at Mard Geer who was still lodged in the wall but it appeared as though he was chuckling.

"You've shown me a good time human wizards I didn't think you would be able to push so far, so far that it would force me to use the ultimate curse that I devised for my soul purpose" the etherious demon said as he dislodged himself from the wall and strode towards the two wizards. "In ages past all magic belonged to the one source, the one magic. Eventually this became the many types of magic that exist today, however, our master E.N.D found an even greater source of power than that of magic…Curse power" the demon suddenly began explaining in a deranged tone setting both slayers on edge.

"Curses were developed from all the negative an evil emotions possessed by humanity what you call the seven deadly sins. Wrath, Sloth, Pride, Gluttony, Greed, Lust and Envy these negative emotions are what master E.N.D used to create curse power and since then it has only gotten stronger surpassing magic even further than it already had" Mard Geer boasted before placing one hand on top of the other with the top one having the middle and index fingers pointing upwards and the bottom hand having all but the middle and ring fingers point downward.

"Be consumed in the ultimate curse that I Mard Geer devised for the purpose of killing lord Zeref, be consumed by the memory of death by **Memento Mori!** " the etherious demon shouted in a crazed voice as a purplish miasma surrounded the two slayers and immobilized there movements. "I can't move, or feel my magic what is this crap!" the ice devil slayer shouted out in a panicked voice truly thrown for a loop for ideas of what to do.

"Me neither what the hell is going on?" Natsu wasn't fairing any better, he didn't know what the purple mist was but it gave him the chills as it reminded him of the spell Zero used to send him to the void. "You humans could never understand the brilliance of this curse, still be honoured that I'm using my ultimate attack to finish you off. Memento Mori ignores, no destroys would be a better word. Memento Mori destroys the very concept of life and death hence making it the perfect method of killing an immortal being such as lord Zeref" Mard Geer said in a proud tone as he poured more curse power into the attack to accelerate its process.

This caused the miasma to glow faintly before it erupted in a goldish green vortex that reached towards the sky, the earth shook and the heavens parted for the beam of light that seemed endless, even the two dragons in the sky stopped to take notice of the beam.

When the light cleared Mard Geer was now in his human form smirking at the deep crater that had formed as a result of his attack with not a single trace of his enemies left in it, while it ascended into the heavens the sheer force and pressure of the attack bore into the earth beneath it. Just as the underworld king was about to walk away but he stopped he thought he heard the sound of crumbling earth.

"Impossible" as soon as he turned around Mard Geer saw both Gray and Natsu now standing in the crater a little worse for wear in Natsu's case but in Gray's case he was a lot worse off, he had demonic black markings all over his body and one of his eyes had completely turned a crimson read colour. **"Did Silver's power protect him?"** Mard Geer for once in his life was left speechless as he assumed that whatever this was protected both him and the dragonslayer from Memento Mori.

"Huh…the only thing….I can do to protect the future…is…..believe in Natsu" Immediately Gray began to stumble from all the damage he had received, his voice was hoarse as he fell but Natsu could still make out every word of it until the Devil fell to the ground, his body appearing lifeless leaving Natsu in a position where he knew not how to respond "Gray" "HOW DARE A MERE HUMAN LIKE YOU DEFY ME MARD GEER!" the underworld king was beyond pissed as he began shifting into his etherious form and charged at the still standing Natsu.

"GGGGRRRRAAAAAYYYY!"

"HHHHUUUUMMMAAANNN!"

"DDDDAAAMMMMMMMIT!"

In an instant Natsu's body was covered in crimson red scales and his magic power spiked, by the time Mard Geer had closed the distance between the two it was already over **"EMPYREAN!"** a mega powerful crash magic infused punch to the demons face sent the demon flying through a consecutive seven wall before he appeared outside of the rubble mid-air completely dumb founded by what had just happened.

"What's with this power ugh!" before the demon could finish Natsu closed the massive distance between the two instantaneously and delivered a devastating knee to the demon's chin causing a shockwave as well effectively silencing the demon. "DRAGON FORCE!?" Mard Geer asked in sheer disbelief upon seeing the appearance of the now golden flame and crimson scale clad pinkette.

"Inherited directly from Igneel himself" the dragonslayer grunted as he landed on some airborne debris before charging his magic up causing a sense of alarm to go off in the underworld king **"Dammit Kyouka sped up the countdown!"** Mard Geer couldn't actually belief it himself, he the strongest of Zeref's awakened demons was panicking because of a mere human.

" **DRAGONSLAYER'S SECRET ART HIDDEN FIRE FORM; CRIMSON LOTUS PHOENIX SWORD!"** the pinkette called out upon completing his charge before rocketing off in a blaze of golden flames level a trail of spiralling explosions in his wake. Slamming into Mard Geer's stomach Natsu continued to push the demon further and further into the sky causing the underworld king to roar out in pain and cough up a substantial amount of blood. The attack was only halted when they collided with a very large chunk of debris that shattered upon impact the force of which was enough to separate the two.

" **IT'S NOT OVER!"**

Mard Geer seemed even more furious than ever when he charged towards Natsu and grabbed the slayer by the scruff of the neck and like earlier began rocketing towards the ground aiming to obliterate the dragonslayer's body by grinding it into the ground. "I'm impressed that you were able to take my two strongest spells one after the other but" **"I'll grind you into nothingness!"**

"You're forgetting one thing, I'm not alone" Natsu said causing Mard Geer's eyes to widen and look for a certain devil slayer who now had a large bow made from purplish ice pointed directly at him.

"GGGGRRRRRAAAAYYYYY!"

" **Ice Zeroth Short Bow of Destruction!"** the devil slayer let loose his projectile charged up with devil slayer magic, the arrow sailed through the sky at insane speeds not giving Mard Geer time to react and in a split second it pierce the demon king through the chest. The results of which were instantaneous as his etherious scales began to crumble and fall off. Both Natsu and Mard Geer fell to the ground with a thud. "I Mard Geer defeated impossible nonetheless you've lost humans, FACE has activated Magic will disappear from this world and Lord E.N.D shall rule with me at his side" Mard said weekly while smirking however a colossal shockwave drew not only his attention but Natsu's and Gray's attention.

There before them lay a 'defeated' Acnologia which was soon followed by a second shockwave that landed on top of the dragon king revealing itself to be Igneel. "Fear not humans, stay strong as the light will come in the darkest hour" the crimson dragon said in a deep voice while starring at the FACE map causing the wizards to do the same. Slowly but surely face markers were being replaced by large red X's.

"What's happening?" Natsu asked in confusion seeing that his father seemed to know what was going on, "The other dragons have awakened, Metalicanna, Grandeeney, Weisselogia and Skiadrum all the dragons have now awakened in accordance with the contract" Igneel explained to his son who could only stare in awe at his father "awesome."

More and more markers disappeared until there were none left, "Impossible how could this happen, how could I fail?" Mard Geer asked himself still unable to move from the pain. "Oi tell me now why were you and the other dragons inside me and the other slayers?" Natsu asked and from his tone Igneel could tell he wasn't going to let up until he revealed everything. "Well one reason was to prevent you dragonslayers from turning into dragons by creating antibodies while inside you and the other was….ugh"

 **RRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!**

Before he was able to finish the black dragon suddenly sprung back to life and pushed the flame dragon king off of himself before he took off into the sky with Igneel chasing after him apologising to his son saying that he'd pick this up later on and that Natsu needed to get that book.

"The book" the dragonslayer knew the importance of the book but when he turned to its location he saw that Gray was holding it. "That book give it to me Gray!" the pinkette's tone came across as very demanding but the ice mage didn't falter. "Are you shitting me, this is E.N.D the most powerful of Zeref's demons who's helpless right now and you want me to give you his book so you can just give it to your dragon, forget it I made a promise to my old man that I would destroy this monstrosity and I intend to keep it" the ice mage replied in a stern voice his fist clenched around the slightly worn book and a for a slight second Natsu felt a gripping pain in his heart but he chose to ignore it.

"I'll take that book by force if I have to Gray, I've still got plenty of magic in reserve. But you…you're on zero" Natsu's voice was dead serious and the look on his face mirrored how he sounded as his eyes conveyed no emotion except one anger and it almost looked as if there was a faint black rings around his pupils. This caused the ice make wizard to break out into a nervous sweat. **"Shit he's serious"** was all Gray was allowed to think before he felt the book fade from his grasp.

"What the hell did you do!?"

"It wasn't me!"

"I believe this book is mine" the dragonslayer heard a familiar voice say that was accompanied by a strangely familiar presence and not magical but just a simple presence. He knew who it was just and but even the first time he met him back on Tenrou island he couldn't help but shake the feeling that he had felt that presence from somewhere before.

"Zeref" the dragonslayer growled out towards a black haired man with crimson eyes and a slight smirk on his face. He was wearing a flowing toga and underneath it he worn a purple shirt lined in gold. "That's Zeref?" "Lord Zeref"

"You did well Mard Geer, Acnologia was definitely an unforeseen circumstance. Had he not shown up you would have most likely succeeded in freeing E.N.D and eradicating magic but I suppose things might have worked out for the better, you may sleep now" the dark wizard known only as Zeref said to the demon who weakly reached out his hand with fear in his eyes, "No lord Zeref, I Mard Geer can make your wish come true please…" "No you can't" the demon tried to say in a pleading tone before Zeref cut him off and with the swipe of a hand the temporary guild master of Tartarus was turned back into his book form which instantaneously combusted turning to ash surprising both slayers present.

"What the hell why would you kill one of your own comrades!" the ice mage shouted in anger despite being their enemy and demons at that the only one Gray would ever allow himself to kill is E.N.D so seeing this happen right before him was infuriating. "I don't see why you should care what I do to my creations" Zeref said in a slightly amused tone before directing his attention to the dragon's in the sky.

"It really was unfortunate that Acnologia had to show up but I guess it just wasn't the time for 'that'" the dark mage spoke ominously before directing his attention towards Natsu "It will be either you or E.N.D that will reach me Natsu, you decide" the dark wizard shocking both slayers further before Zeref pulled a vanishing act "Oi what the hell does he mean by that?!" the ice mage shouted at his rival in an angry voice, "Like I know ice prick, I only heard of this E.N.D guy in the last day and a half" the dragonslayer retorted in equal anger before he heard a familiar voice.

" **Natsu"**

"Igneel?" the slayer froze at the tone of his voice, it was grim and Igneel never had a grim voice, "Natsu I'm sorry for all the time you spent looking for me but it was necessary for the safety of you and the other dragonslayers, like I said before the time we spent inside your bodies was to produce antibodies to prevent you from turning into actual dragons like Acnologia, with these antibodies it should be almost impossible for you to transform….the other reason was so we could defeat our negative legacy Acnologia but I never expected him to be this strong" Igneel explained through his telepathic link with his son while he was being forced deeper and deeper into the ground.

"Hang on dad I'm on my way!" the slayer shouted out as he made his way to help his father **"Fool didn't you hear me Acnologia is far stronger than I ever could have predicted!"** the fire dragon roared out through the telepathic link while during his battle he was forced to cough up a small amount of blood from the force being applied to his chest "What are you talking about there is nothing that we can't defeat as long as we work together" the son called out in a panicked thinking he wasn't going to make it.

" **DON'T INTERFERE!"**

Using a massive amount of strength Igneel pushed Acnologia off of him causing the dragon of the apocalypse to take flight and like earlier he was followed by the flame dragon king **, "I've dreamed of this day… the day where I could tear Acnologia apart with my own two hands"** the dragon king said in excitement just as Natsu made his way to the overlook of a hill to see the two dragons charging towards each other at insane speeds.

In that moment the dragonslayer saw his entire life flash before his eyes not because that his life was endanger but because of the sight before him. It all happened in a split second but it was enough to scare the dragonslayer into believe this was a nightmare. At one end of the aerial combat field was Acnologia missing three quarters of his left arms but also with a very familiar red scaled arm locked in his jaws and at the other end was Igneel with Acnologia's missing arm in his jaws but also missing his left arm.

However that wasn't the only injury Igneel sustained as his next injury was far more fatal if the large amount of blood covering Acnologia's right arm were any indication. The entire left side of the fire dragon kings stomach had been obliterated, it took a moment for the pain to set in before Igneel even moved and when he did insane amounts of blood were coughed out of his mouth before he plummeted towards the ground **. "This has to be a nightmare, there's no way Igneel would lose"** was what was running through the dragonslayer's mind, his father was the strongest dragon in existence this was impossible.

Acnologia circled round roaring out in pain and anger at the loss of his own limb before he began charging up one of his cataclysmic roars, this wasn't happening was he really going to lose his father after he had just found him. What confused Natsu is that Igneel was smiling, "Natsu the time I spent with you as father and son was the happiest of my life, remember grow strong and find meaning in life and that will give you purpose in life, you've made an old dragon really proud to have someone like you to call son" before Natsu could even call out to his father Acnologia let loose its roar putting down the fire dragon king once and for all, the explosion of which knocked the dragonslayer a great distance away but none the less out of the black dragon's sight.

With wounds to tend to the black dragon soared off into the horizon leaving a bad taste in its mouth of unsettled business with a certain black wizard. So there it was Fairytail had won but at what cost there was great lose for quite a few members of the guild and some may not ever be able to use magic again. One such Individual stands beside the remainder of the charred corpse of his father as memories of the past together flow through his mind causing a flood of emotions course through him while his father's last words ring in his head.

"I will get stronger and I swear I'll grind Acnologia's ass into dragon dust!" various members of the dragonslayers old guild watch from a respectful distance as they watch their former guild mate collapse onto the ground an emotional mess. The other four dragonslayers that were there could sympathise with him to a certain degree seeing as there dragons had also reappeared and left them but unlike Natsu their dragon parents ascended into what they assume is the dragon's heaven where as Igneel was killed before Natsu's very eyes so what he was feeling now was justifiable. As well as that out of all the dragonslayer's Natsu's desire to find Igneel was much stronger than any of the others, Sting and Rogue didn't count because they thought they killed their parents and Gajeel was an iffy case who you couldn't tell what he wanted.

Apart from Natsu Wendy had the strongest desire as she even grew a strong attachment to the Edolas version of her dragon part who happened to be the guild's medic but even still Natsu's desire to find Igneel is what drove him to get stronger, what got him through those impossible times and gave his life purpose outside of the guild, so how were they going to approach him

Before any of them could think of something the pinkette got up and began walking away which looked more like he was staggering. "Natsu wait!" the familiar voice of a little blue feline caught the slayers attention but he didn't respond he didn't even look he just point back towards the group of mages that were watching him. The group were shocked by his actions, never once would Natsu fail to address Happy vocally so he must have been more destroyed than they thought.

"Oi Natsu what the hell how can you ignore Happy like that he just trying to make sure you're okay!" Gray shouted towards the dragonslayer who stopped dead in his tracks before looking over his shoulder revealing his face stained with tears that just seemed to endlessly flow. "You didn't just ask me how? The purpose of my life for the last seven years of my life just died in front of my eyes after the first time I see him in seven years and you ask me how, I get that I'm not the only one who experienced loss Gray but still"

"That still doesn't give you the right to shrug off Happy, get over yourself" Gray interrupted causing the dragonslayer to forcibly contain himself, "Get over myself you say, at least you had your closure Gray, I didn't, I had no reason as to why he left like he did, did he abandon me? Did he die? I didn't know that's why I looked all those years to get my closure. Look I'm sorry that they used your dad like they did but there was so much I needed to know from Igneel and not just what he told me about the slayers and Acnologia's but about myself and who I am!" the dragonslayer shouted back before he began walking away and before anyone could follow used crash magic to destroy the earth behind kicking up a huge amount of earth and dust as well as separating him from them.

"Natsu wait" Erza shouted out but when the smoke cleared the dragonslayer had vanished without a trace, "It's for the best" Gajeel spoke up in a neutral tone earning a glare from Erza, "What the hell are you talking about? How is this for the better?" the scarlet haired mage shouted in anger towards the iron dragonslayer. "No he's right Erza, while there are others who have experienced loss today none of you truly understand the bond between a dragon and child and what this will result in for Natsu" Wendy spoke up in a melancholic tone surprising everybody else. "But…" "If you can't understand what she's saying Erza, she's trying to say that Salamander is going to try and take revenge against Acnologia the next time he sees him" Gajeel interrupted the fairy queen leaving everyone without words and praying for Natsu's safety.

 **With Jellal, Meredy and the Oracion Seis**

Jellal with his eyes now finally healed waited for the return of Natsu along with Meredy and the Oracion Seis, "Hear he comes, it doesn't sound good" Cobra spoke in a grim voice while keeping a straight face causing Meredy's face to change into one of shock and worry. They watched as Natsu with a few injuries trudged lifelessly into Crime Sorcierre's new temporary base. His face was devoid of emotion as he passed each and every one of them none of them able to get a read of what happened until he walked past Cobra whose eyes were instilled with fear and pity for his fellow dragonslayer upon seeing what he went through.

Meredy and the others noticed this but chose not to address it at least until Natsu was out of the room. "What did you see?" Angel asked curiously as it was rare for Cobra to get this riled over seeing someone's memories. "I'll tell you later but right now he needs you" Cobra said while looking directly at Meredy who didn't even think twice before following after Natsu into the back of the HQ.

"Natsu you alright? Do you want to talk about it?" Meredy asked when she came upon the pinkette banging his fist into the wall in frustration, "Please I need to be alone" Natsu replied trying to sound strong but his voice betrayed him as it was shaky and crackly. "No I won't leave you, you helped me when I needed it now you need me and I won't let you turn me…" Meredy was cut short when she was enveloped in a hug from the dragonslayer which she returned. "He's gone; after all this time he's gone" Natsu spoke in barely a whisper but due to their close proximity Meredy heard him loud and clear but she didn't know what he meant but assumed it had something to do with Igneel.

"Natsu what happened?" "Acnologia, he killed Igneel" Natsu responded as the tears flowed freely before Meredy pulled his head into the crook of her neck and began stroking his hair. "Natsu I'm so sorry I had no idea" Meredy replied trying her best to comfort him. They stayed like that in silence for a few moments longer until Meredy went to pull away but was unable to due to Natsu's grip.

"Natsu?"

"Please promise me you won't disappear" his voice was filled with fear, it sounded like a child pleading for their parent to stay with them. Meredy placed her hands on the Natsu's face forcing his onyx eyes to look directly into her crimson ones "Of course, I'm always gonna be with you, I promise you I'll never disappear as long as you do the same" she replied in caring voice before she pulled the dragonslayer into a kiss which initially shocked Natsu but he soon reciprocated it. They only stopped when they felt the need for air both breathing heavily, Meredy then pulled Natsu into another hug

"I love you Natsu and I promise to never leave you"

"I love you too Meredy and I promise I'll always be by your side"

 **Chapter End**

 **Yeah we finally got tartaros out of the way and we even got a wee Natsu and Meredy moment so the empire arc, I plan on doing 2-3 chapters before that though focusing on Natsu and Meredy for specific reasons but let me know if you want me to do chapters where Natsu joins up with Fairytail to save Makarov like in the manga or not. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter until next time.**


	7. Chapter 7 X792

**I've left this story for a while haven't I? Oh well as long as I get back to it it's okay right guys? Hehe yeah I know it isn't alright to be honest I forgot about it for a while when I was working on my other stories, reading manga, watching anime and occasionally doing work but at least now I've remembered so let's get on with this chapter oh yeah I know I said this chapter would be about Natsu and Meredy but I've decided that this chapter will take place after the avatar arc in X792 so about pre-Alveraz arc enjoy.**

It is the year X792 and an entire year has passed since the war between Fairytail and Tartaros, the activation of face was stopped but there were various casualties across the continent. The council which was destroyed by one of the nine demon gates was reformed by the calling upon of the ten wizard saints to form a new council which meant for the first time ever all four Gods of Ishgar would be gathered in one place well that would be if God Serena hadn't mysteriously disappeared so to take his place a previous wizard saint was called upon, Makarov Dreyar the master of the now disbanded Fairytail but like God Serena Makarov was MIA leaving the council one person short.

Yes after the war with Tartaros Master Makarov suddenly declared the guild disbanded forcing everyone to go their own ways, as one could imagine they were all distraught but none more so than Happy and Lucy. Still over the last year Happy and Lucy were determined not to let Fairytail to die and decided while taking a job with sorcerer weekly that they'd gather information on the other guild members while thinking of way to resurrect the guild.

They had almost gave up but then they found very fresh information concerning Gray and Erza and if there was ever a place to start with reviving Fairytail it was with them, well that was only partially true Natsu would be the first place to start when trying to revive the guild but he wasn't even a part of the guild when it was disbanded.

So after joining up the dots and managing to gather Wendy and Juvia along the way Lucy and Happy were able to find Gray but to their surprise he was now a part of a dark organisation known as Avatar who were devoted to Zeref obviously and his appearance was much more demonic. After being captured they were soon rescued by their captor Gray who revealed that this was a secret mission he and Erza were working on together.

This of course lead Juvia into interrogating Gray if he did anything intimate with Erza which he immediately denied. After the group joined up with Gajeel, Pantherlily and Levy who were all working for the council they defeated the Avatar group thankfully before they could summon the Battle God Itsukungi. With that done everyone made their way to Magnolia in the hopes that Lucy's letters got to their appropriate recipients telling them to come to Magnolia.

Luck was partially on their side as nearly everyone that was a part of Fairytail arrived in Magnolia to greet them with the exception of Gildarts, Laxus and the Thunder Legion all of whom Lucy couldn't get a single detail on their whereabouts. Immediately the reconstruction of the guild began with a brawl or two breaking out which also brought up another one of their problems as without Master Makarov a temporary guild master would be needed in his place but who would be able to control the hooligans in Fairytail? The answer came in the form of one pissed off Erza Scarlet who was elected as Fairytail's 7th guild master.

Still even then it wasn't long until the newly reformed Fairytail's next problem arose, with Mest Gryder former council member and member of Fairytail before that now having re-joined the guild requesting that Erza and her team help him rescue Master Makarov. This instantly got the groups attention that Mest knew where Makarov was so they didn't hesitate to go through with the plan with Mest explaining on the way everything he knew about why Makarov disbanded the guild.

The group were on their way to Caracaras Island ( **A/N I think that's right?)** via boat and they discovered that over their year apart Wendy had developed motion sickness which was shocking considering she was the only dragonslayer without it. At any rate the group had decided that they would try and stay under the radar from the enemy which were the soldiers of a neighbouring nation known as Alakatasia or the Alveraz empire for short however that plan didn't go too well and even after disposing of all the fodder Erza and Lucy were made useless when some Marin guy who controlled spacial magic made them disappear into thin air saying they would now be stored in his dimension and that brings us right up to where we are now.

"Mest! Bastard what did you do to him!" Gray growled out angrily at the man before him who only smirked, Gray and Wendy were about to attack with their retrospective elements but they froze upon feeling an immense amount of magic power the likes of which they had never felt before. **"This magic power it's like nothing we've ever felt before"** Gray thought in fear while Wendy's knees started to shake as they heard the clicking of heels on the ground.

"Marin what's going I want some star mango gelato" a bored feminine voice said belonging to a women of average height, with shoulder length green hair and blue eyes. She wore a long purple fur lined robe over her black and gold lined bikini which covered her large bust and essential parts. On her face head she wore a black hair band which sported two small crosses, overall she was beautiful and had a figure that could slay but Gray and Wendy knew this was an enemy and one they didn't know if they could win against even if they had Erza and Lucy.

"Oh Lady Brandish you really didn't have to come here yourself I could have got some for you myself" Marin said in mixture of respect and a smitten tone but Brandish seemed to be ignoring him as well as Gray and Wendy. "Sorry I don't like to deal with tedious things" Brandish said suddenly directing her gaze towards Gray and Wendy "Oi do expect us simply stand by after what your guy did to our comrade?!" Gray half shouted trying to be intimidating but failing miserably as inside he was scared as hell.

"If this is how your gonna be then guess I got no choice….there were even" Brandish replied emotionlessly making Gray think she was going to attack him and Wendy at first, well that was until Marin appeared to explode into to nothingness surprising the two Fairytail mages beyond words this caused Erza and Lucy to reappear. "Now if you'll excuse me I want to get some star mango gelato as one of the twelve my breaks are few and far between so I wish to enjoy…" Brandish started with a little enthusiasm but it disappeared when she turned to face the only star mango stall in ruins and just like that her magic started slipping out.

"This magic, what the hell? It's so vast" Erza commented in fear before she felt the entire island raise skyward, "Impossible she changed the entire topography of the island!" Lucy said in shock before she felt the chilling aura flow from Brandish, "It was you wasn't it, you were the ones who destroyed it? The one chance in months I have to get some and you lot ruin it…now prepare to face your punishment" Brandish said in a deathly voice scaring each of the mages as she prepared to slam the entire island into the ocean at break neck speeds.

However before she could do anything white lines started appearing through the earth beneath all the mages, this was soon followed by **"DISASSEMBLE!"** Everyone recognised the spell's name and knew the magic to be Crash magic but for it to be at a level where it could disassemble the entire island especially in this state it could only be Gildarts.

Before any of the mages knew what was happy the island broke apart into large chunks of rock that all of the mages were falling among with the majority shouting and praying for their life however Brandish didn't seem to bothered by it a with a flick of her wrist a large pillar of rock rose out of the ocean for her to gracefully land upon while the others all fell into the water as Brandish used her Topography magic to shrink the pillar until it appeared as a mere stepping stone for in the ocean.

The mages waited for her to strike but they were pleasantly surprised when Mest suddenly teleported them somewhere which resembles the ruins on Galuna Island. "Where are we?" Wendy asked as she and Carla made their over to what looked like a window only for them to have their minds blown revealing that they were in an underwater sea temple.

" _Attention all passengers welcome aboard the moving temple Olympia!"_ a feminine childish voice called out from nowhere as it resounded around the room, "This voice I know it" Lucy said as she held Happy, "Aye but who is it?" the exceed added on, _"This is you're caption Sorano/Solano speaking"_ the now revealed angel spoke through the communication system. "ANGEL!" Lucy shouted out in surprise.

Shortly Sorano came around to see the group, "See told you I'd get the exact location" she said directing her comment at Mest, "Yeah you did good" he replied causing her to smirk "Tell me something I don't know"

"Wait what's going on here?" Lucy asked still not grasping what was going on, "I made a deal with Cobra and the rest of the Oracion Seis before the Tartaros incident that in exchange for information about the guilds plan they would be set free from prison…" "Yep long story short me, cobra and the others are now a part of Crime Sorciere" Sorano interrupted in a childish manner causing everyone to sweat drop. "Sorano here for the last while has been acting as a spy in the Alakatasia empire gathering information for us using this temple as a base of operation" Mest explained causing Erza to think for a second.

"Why didn't you use Cobra!" she demanded to know causing Mest to raise his hands in defence "There are fundamental problems with that considering he's a dragonslayer and we'd be wasting resources by having someone to pilot the temple for him so it's more efficient to have Sorano do it herself besides she's the only one who can pilot the temple not even Jellal is able to do it." Mest revealed giving the redhead the answer she desired.

"That aside is Gildarts here?" Gray asked curiously and immediately upon doing so he saw an uncomfortable look on Mest's face. "I don't really know if I should answer that or not" the memory mage replied nervously causing Sorano to sigh in exhaustion, "Come on man up if you won't tell them I will" she said in a stern voice confusing the Fairytail mages. "Yeah well what if he doesn't want them to know" Mest whispered back in a voice the others weren't able to here or at least that was what he was going for as he forgot Wendy was a dragonslayer and with her enhanced senses she picked up exactly what he said.

Upon hearing what Mest said her eyes widened with hope at who they could be talking about, meanwhile said teleportation/memory mage and Sorano were in the midst of a miniature argument, "look it's his decision and to be honest I don't want to get on his bad side what about you!" Mest said in a serious voice and everyone noticed Sorano physically flinch upon this making them think whoever they were talking about was someone you didn't want to piss off.

"Leave her alone Mest, her heart was in the right place" a monotonous voice said making Erza think the person they were talking about was Jellal. However when the group turned to face the source of the voice they were all left speechless at the sight before them. In front of them stood their former guild mate Natsu Dragneel and the aura he was radiating was one of sheer domination and magical power. It was obvious from this alone that over the course of a year Natsu had done some serious training….and also skipped out on cutting his hair which was the same noticeable cheery blossom pink colour (or salmon as he prefers to call it) as it was when they last saw him.

The only difference from then was that his hair was very wild and messy looking as it went past his shoulders now and his scarf was missing. His appearance had also changed practically everything about it had changed instead of his usual attire he now wore a very Gildarts-like attire with grey combat boots, dark baggy pants, a long dark cloak similar to Gildarts that was slightly tattered here and there. His upper torso was exposed apart from his lower abdomen being wrapped tightly in bandages. To finish things off he had bandages around his good arm going from the wrist all the way to just below his shoulder, he basically mirrored Gildarts' image. Still all in all both Meredy and Sorano were very happy from the results of his training and his new look although for Sorano it was more of a look but cannot touch thing while Meredy had that fine package all to herself.

"So are you guys just gonna stare and gawk or are you actually going to say something?" Natsu asked in a sarcastic tone which slightly got on Gray's nerves, next thing Natsu knew was Wendy and Happy attempting to tackle him to the ground but failing to budge him at all. "What happened to you? Where did you go? Why didn't try to contact us?!" Wendy and Happy shouted in unison surprising the dragonslayer while also making feel guilty as he saw the tears in their eyes.

"I'm sorry, I would have checked up on all of you guys but I was going all over the continent training in order to become strong enough to protect everyone that's important, I never meant to hurt you Wendy or anyone else for that matter it's just after Igneel I didn't know what to do" Natsu said in a saddened tone as he brought both of them into a hug.

"But there's no way you could have gotten as strong as you have by yourself" Erza spoke up with narrowed eyes which Natsu knew meant she wasn't very happy right now, most likely because his magic power was leagues above hers and although she always wanted him to surpass her secretly she was hoping it wouldn't happen for another few years yet.

"Yeah you're right I wasn't alone, I had Meredy the entire time. She was my reason to push on a get stronger, of course there was also Igneel's death but he will always be a part of me" Natsu said as he ignited his fist in brilliant crimson/orange flames that were far stronger than his regular ones, then with a flick of his wrist they were out. "I did a bit of training on my own but before that I trained with Gildarts and then a bit with Laxus" Natsu revealed causing everyone's eyes to widen at the fact that the dragonslayer trained with the two strongest members of their guild and when they thought about it the only explanation of how Natsu got this strong was by training with mages of that calibre.

"Wait you met up with Laxus and Gildarts where did you last see them?" Lucy asked hoping that the guild could be complete even if Natsu was no longer a part of it. "Sorry I don't know where they are now and even when I trained with them it was in middle of nowhere all I can say is there is a lot less mountains in that area" Natsu answered in an even tone causing Lucy to frown.

"Hey everyone we're nearly there" a bubbly feminine voice called out causing everyone once again turn the source to see a familiar pink haired crimson eyed teen. "Meredy?" Gray asked just to be sure "Yep that's me, awe you guys didn't bring Juvia with you" the pinkette responded before pouting at the lack of her best friend. Then everybody noticed it, Natsu's missing scarf was wrapped securely around Meredy's neck.

"I was wondering where you disappeared to" Natsu said while making his way over to his fellow guild member and pinkette before having a regretful look in his eyes as he ran his hand across the bandages running up Meredy's left arm. The action confused everyone especially when Meredy placed her other hand on Natsu's face before saying, "You're never going to let this go no matter how many times I tell you it wasn't your fault" her voice was soft and comforting but even still everyone noticed Natsu's free hand clench into a fist.

This was before he let out a long sigh "I'm too stubborn to accept that, you of all people should know that" Natsu said sarcastically causing Meredy to smile. "I do, but should also know that I'm just as stubborn especially when I'm going to be dealing with you for the foreseeable future" Meredy said before flashing a smile and giving the other pinkette a kiss before making her way out of the room.

"What the hell just happened? You guys saw what I did didn't you?" Gray asked with dumbfounded expression plastered on his face and the others in the group could only dumbly nod in response. "What you've never seen a couple kiss before?" Sorano asked with a mischievous smirk on her face making the other look at the dragonslayer for confirmation of this information. They tried to ask but Wendy's face had exploded into crimson as she tried to form syllables, Gray and Lucy were mumbling things about how Natsu had beat them and Happy was busy flying around saying how 'they're' in love.

Erza however calmly marched up to the slayer with her hair shadowing the look on her face which unnerved the pinkette, when she raised her face up she had a sickly sweet smile on her face "Natsu you two haven't been doing anything indecent have you?" the crimson haired knight asked, of course Natsu could only whistle in response before disappearing so fast he left a smoky after image of himself. This was followed by Erza flaring up her magic a re-quipping her standard heart kreutz armour and sword and began her hunt to reprimand the pink haired dragonslayer and educate him on the proper conduct that is involved in a relationship, her number one rule so happened to be no sex before marriage.

"There still as weird as ever" Sorano sweat dropped before going back to pilot the temple in for surfacing and luckily for the dragonslayer who had somehow miraculously overcome his motion sickness the mission came before Erza's desire for punishment and within the hour everyone bar Sorano who remained on Olympia were making their way through a dense forest that went on for miles on the coast of Alakatasia.

 **Several hours later**

"Ahhhh are we there yet? We've been walking for hours!" Lucy whined like a spoilt child, "FOR TH LAST TIME NO AND IF YOU ASK AGAIN GOD HELP YOU!" Meredy shouted back in a very irritated and fed up tone at having to put up with Lucy's whining over the last few hours. "At any rate we've travelled very far inland, so we should be prepared for the worst case scenario, thank god I have one of these" Natsu said as he held up a small grey capsule between his index finger and thumb.

"What's that?" Erza asked curiously having never seen an item quite like it, "It's an instant magic capsule, magic mobile model. By breaking the capsule open you release a condensed amount of magic which summons a magic mobile, it's handy for quick escapes" Natsu explained while the other bar Mest and Meredy looked at him like he had grown a second head, "there's that look again, I keep telling you guys I'm not as stupid as you think I am give me some credit plus when you've only really got one good arm you gotta get smart in order to survive, I'd rather lose a fight a live another day then refuse to lose and die" the pinkette said greatly shocking his former comrades with just how much he had changed.

"Looks like there is a brain in their after all" Gray said hoping to get a rise out of his ex-rival for old times but to his surprise it didn't even bother the dragonslayer one bit. They all continued walking on but then they noticed that Natsu's body completely stiffened up as did Meredy's and Mest's. "Mest get a lock on that magic hurry!" Meredy shouted in a panic confusing the others, "What's going on?" Wendy asked in a slightly scared tone, "all of you need to be ready to fight immediately or else you'll die, we found Makarov but were not gonna get out of here scot free" Natsu said in an emotionless voice as he popped all of his joints.

"Got him!" Mest shouted before teleporting away leaving everyone on edge, seconds later Mest came back littered with cuts and bruises holding an equally injured and slightly older looking Makarov.

"Gramps"

"Master"

"Master"

"You guys"

"Zeref! Zeref was there, he's here!"

Sadly however Makarovs reunion with his children and Mest's conversation with Natsu and Meredy was cut short when the group heard a mad laugh sound from behind them "Hoho leaving already Makarov, such a shame and we were just getting to know each other" a tanned man with tall standing spiky black hair. He wore baggy black pants and black combat boots as well as a loose yellow vest-like top, this was Ajeel Ramel the Desert King and one of the Spriggan 12.

Immediately Natsu sent a blast of fire towards the Ajeel who simple raised a wall of sand up to block the attack but Natsu was not attacking he was creating a diversion and as he continued unleashing his fire against Ajeel's wall of sand he used his free hand to break the magic mobile capsule causing a magic mobile to appear in the middle of the group large enough to accommodate them all.

"Everyone in!" Natsu shouted in a demanding voice causing everyone to comply and pile into the vehicle with Erza taking the driver's seat and hooking herself up to the Se plug. Increasing the amount of flames he was sending towards the sand mage Natsu created an explosion that sent the opposing mage sliding back while also kicking up a large cloud of dust before he jumped on to the roof of the vehicle giving Erza the go ahead to pour large quantities of magic into the plug causing the vehicle to take off at tremendous speeds leaving Ajeel behind in a cloud of dust.

"Hoh so those are Makarov's soldiers, but this is too interesting to let them escape just like that" Ajeel said with a mad smile plastered on his face before he summoned forth a large golem made of sand and hoped on. "Let's give chase shall we" the sand mage said to himself before using his magic to give his creation movement and movement at incredible speeds so much so that he caught up to Natsu and the others in no time.

"Erza you have to go faster!" Mest shouted as he looked back and forth between the scarlet haired mage and the sand golem. "I know but if I go any faster I'll run dry and then we'll be in even more trouble, Gray, Lucy see if you can do something!" Erza shouted back getting nods from her team members who then stepped up onto the roof where Natsu was.

" **Ice make; Quick Silver!"**

" **Star Dress Sagittarius form; Star Shot!"**

Both Gray and Lucy managed to stop Ajeel's assault with Gray switching into his demon slayer form and freezing the golem and Lucy using her star dress to shoot down the other sand creatures Ajeel created. "I'm not done yet Fairytail **Ant Lion Pit!"** Ajeel called out in a crazed voice as the ground beneath the magic mobile dissolved and a sand pit swallowed it, "Nothing that goes in my ant lion pit ever comes out…alive that is. You puny mages of Ishgar could never hope to defeat Alveraz after all what hope does a land abandoned by God have against our overwhelming power?"

 **BBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM**

"W-what…ugh" Ajeel was shocked beyond belief when he saw a pillar of steam erupt from the sand pit and before he could fathom what happened a flaming fist that for the first time in forever had caused him pain cut him short "Like I give a damn about that, it ain't gods that give humans the hope and even if it was then we'll just create our own hope" Natsu said with his metallic limb still alight. **"He vaporised the sand!"** the sand mage momentarily thought in shock before it turned to excitement. "It's been years since I've taken a hit like that now I'm fired up!"

"Oi don't go stealing my line"

"Okay then try this" with a swipe of his hand Ajeel summoned numerous large streams of swirling sand in an attempt to engulf Natsu and the other, "No you try this" Natsu retorted as he extended his hand out before it faintly glowed white followed by a large powerful burst of crash magic. The two attack met in the middle and struggled against each other momentarily before they cancelled each other out resulting in an explosion causing the sand mage to smile like a mad man.

" **River of Blades!"** faster than Ajeel could react a river of teal coloured blades flew out of dust cloud caused by the explosion, thinking the blades wouldn't cause him any harm as he could shift his body into sand at will Ajeel let the blades pierce him, when the dust cloud cleared it revealed Meredy with her bandaged arm outstretched glowing green and a determined look on her face. Ajeel was about to insult her feeble attempt to injury him but he soon found his body heating up causing him to look down at the numerous blades littering his body which were now starting to glow a faint red colour.

"Bitch what did you do?" Ajeel said with venom in his voice as his eyes narrowed on Meredy who now started smirking, "nothing much really I just infused my blades with some special fire magic, seeing as your body is said I'm guessing you know what happens when you super heat it right?" Meredy said in an amused tone before the blades started to glow almost completely red and with it the temperature of each sky rocketed.

"Since when did Meredy become so powerful?" Happy asked in awe as he saw that Ajeel was now in quite a bit of pain, "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! I've had enough of you girly of all of you! Time to die" Ajeel shouted before unleashing a large amount of magic creating a shockwave forcing the group back a few feet while also dislodging the heated blades inside of him.

The next thing they noticed were two gigantic hands grabbing all of them, "I WON'T LET YOU HURT MY CHILDREN!" Makarov roared out in his titan form as he held them all close much to their protest bout him playing the hero or in Natsu's and Meredy's case how they weren't one of his children. "Hahaha! You think you can protect them like that old man, this is the end let the sands of death swallow you whole. Drown in my Sands of Death!" Ajeel said in a crazed voice as he summoned a massive tidal wave of sand that dwarf Makarov in his titan form.

"I'll protect you no matter what" Makarov said in a determined voice as he closed his eyes preparing for the worse, "Anything these sands come into contact with dries out from the inside there's nothing you can do to protect your children Makarov!" Ajeel boasted as he decided to put more power in to his ultimate attack to increase its strength and speed "Oi Makarov Let me go I have to try and stop it or else were all gonna die!" Natsu barked at his ex-master who didn't even flinch "NNNNOOOO!" even if you're no longer a part of my guild I must do this to make up for my mistake to make up for being so easily influenced!" Makarov shouted back at the dragonslayer who was taken back by what the old titan mage had said and truth be told even if Makarov had put him down Natsu wasn't sure what he would do to stop the tsunami of sand. His crash magic could do a lot of things but against something like sand especially at this magnitude it wouldn't be enough, his flames were incredibly hot but the amount of time that would be required to vaporise or even turn the sand to glass would be too great and 'that' was reserved for him.

"And Mummified fairies in 3, 2, 1….."  
 **BBBBOOOOOOMMMM**

Before Ajeel could finish his countdown a massive bolt of lightning rained down from the heavens just as the tsunami of sand would have made contact with group destroying it completely shocking everyone there but none more so that Ajeel himself. Everyone now looking towards the source could see a thunder storm going on above them with a ship amidst it but it was who was standing on the deck of the ship that they were looking at.

"You've gotten old…gramps"

"Laxus?!"

"He destroyed that wave of sand in one hit"

"Scary"

"Always one for a flashy entrance"

"I could have done that too"

"Sure Natsu, sure"

"Oi quit gawking and get up here now-we don't have much time" Gajeel and Levy shouted down using a megaphone like device on from the ship. "Mest" Erza shouted getting here message across to the teleportation mage loud and clear "Got it" and just like that Mest teleported the entire group up onto the ship which began to leave angering Ajeel who glared up at Laxus who seemed unaffected by his gaze.

"You think I'm just gonna let you run away?!" Ajeel shouted before sending a torrent of sand skyward towards the escaping ship. Laxus however just sighed in boredom with closed eyes before he opened them with a new sharpness to them, "FOOL, THIS IS ONLY THE INTERMITION!" was all the lightning dragonslayer said before a suffocating amount of magic power surrounded him and the skies became the darkest of black. Then before the torrent of sands could even get half way to the ship a colossal bolt of lightning ripped the sand heading straight for the sand mage before resulting in an explosion that looked like a miniature super nova in terms of size and power.

While Fairytail had a no kill policy it was clear to Natsu that his fellow dragonslayer was going for the kill with attack. Meanwhile back down on the ground "Seriously you gotta be kidding" Ajeel thought to himself with fear in his eyes until he noticed the presence of another, "So it was you that put up that barrier….August?" Ajeel asked towards a very ancient looking man carrying staff, the aura the man gave off was one off absolute power and knowledge as well as one that demanded respect.

"Tis a terrible thing to lose a comrade Ajeel" was all August said before he began walking way "Shitty old man you think I'd be done in by that" Ajeel replied very arrogantly, **"Had I not done something boy you'd be no more than a smouldering pile of ash, to think one so young would be able to accumulate such magic power even in his current condition, hehe the world is vast indeed"** August thought to himself as his thoughts drifted to his analysis of Laxus, while not as skilled as Walcht August was still very capable of setting up the strongest of the strongest barrier while also carrying out an analysis of a mage.

"Ragnarock will certainly be interesting"

 **Chap end**

 **Finally got this chapter done it took me forever to find the right stuff to put but I did it, sorry if it doesn't come across as a part of this story jumping from one story to another all with different writing styles does that to you. Anyway I hope that enjoyed this chapter more than I did writing it until next time see ya!**


	8. Chapter 8: Fairy Heart

**Hey everyone alright back to my Meredy story just letting you know that I will not be doing any more Natsu orientated stories apart from the ones I have already done as I have started liking his character less plus recently everyone seems to be focusing on NaLu stories on this site so while I will still be doing the stories I already have created as well as the one or two I haven't got the chance to post yet I will be trying my hand at making Fairytail stories using other characters as the main focus of the story. I realise I may have said something similar to you guys in previous chapters of other stories but I have just been trying to finish up some of these stories so I can start new ones. Anyway I hope you enjoy the awaited chapter.**

Upon the borrowed Blue Pegasus air ship, the Fairy tail never along with their master has begun celebrating their escape from Alakatasia. Natsu and Meredy however just set in the corner of the ship not wanting to be disturbed. Well that actually wasn't true while Natsu had trained with him temporarily it appeared that Laxus had gotten infinitely stronger since then and after seeing Laxus show off earlier he wanted nothing more than to test his own strength against him.

Sadly, though he wasn't going to get the chance because he knew if he stayed on this ship he'd wind up in Fairy tail, and that was somewhere he didn't want to end up. "Hey Natsu long time no see" the pink haired dragonslayer heard a sweet voice say from his right, snapping him out of his daze, "Huh...w-what Lisanna is that you?" Natsu practically shouted at the youngest Strauss causing her to laugh. "Of course it's me silly, what it's only been a year and you almost didn't recognise me you're hurting my feelings Natsu" Lisanna said with fake tears in her eyes.

Looking at her now Natsu could see that the year had been very generous to Lisanna she had grown in quite a few areas that despite being in a relationship he found his eyes roaming over which earned him a jab in the ribs from Meredy. "Wow you look good; I can tell you've gotten stronger but what did you do over the year?" Natsu asked in Genuine curiosity.

Lisanna then began talking about how she and her siblings trained together to master different and new takeovers she even revealed how Mirajane spared one of the Tartaros demons by offering her to become one of her takeovers, that demon being Sayla, she also revealed how she had also been working at different bars to make sure they had enough money to stay places or to have some spare for some expenditures. It didn't take long for Lisanna to notice the dragonslayers eyes roaming over her and although it wasn't what she was going for it still made her happy all the same. She soon found herself having a conversation with Meredy and despite the pink haired teen was upset the Natsu was eyeing the youngest Strauss instead of her she and Lisanna hit it off especially since Lisanna revealed a few secrets about Natsu that even she didn't know which would come in handy in the future.

However, both pinkettes knew that if they risked leaving Sorano alone the Alveraz empire could find here and that they could scarcely imagine what would happen to her if she was caught. So sharing a look with Meredy the two stood up getting the others attention before they started walking to the edge of the ship. "Natsu what's wrong?" a curious Erza asked as she walked up to the pinkette.

"You guys have your own guild to take care of I have mine, me and Meredy need to get back to Olympia before Alvarez search for it because if they find it, Sorano will only be able to hold out for so long" the dragon slayer responded in a neutral tone while clenching his fists. Before Ezra could protest or any of the others for that fact about how it would be best if Natsu came back to the guild a certain lightning mage decided to voice his opinion on the matter.

"Oi red leave him be, he's no longer a part of Fairy tail he has his own guild members to look out for" Laxus said in his same tired as fuck tone earning an incredulous look from the scarlet haired knight. "At least somebody understands" Natsu said with a sigh of relief before picking Meredy up into his arms.

"Hey put me down what are you doing?" the sensory link mate said in an embarrassed voice but the dragonslayer didn't answer and instead just jumped off the flying transport. "NATSU" this earned him shouts of worry from his former teammates as they ran over to the edge of the ship to see in the fire user was okay but all they could see was the foliage of the trees below.

 **Meanwhile at Vistarion Castle**

"So Natsu it seems you're finally ready to confront me, but will it be you or E.N.D who needs me in the end...as August predicted the Dragon King festival is sure to interesting" Zeref said from his balcony that overlooked his empire. From the report that the Magic King had delivered it would seem as though Fiore wouldn't be totally helpless. "However, against such a for as Acnologia I have no choice but to destroy Mavis' guild a take the Fairy heart" the death magic user said as an aura of seriousness shrouded him before he returned to his chambers.

 **Back with Olympia**

"Are you sure it's okay to leave things like this?" Meredy asked in a caring done worried for her partner but Natsu just shook his head. "Honestly I'm not but I have a responsibility to Crime Sorcierre to keep its members, my family safe so that takes first priority" Natsu replied in an unsure done to start with but it turned into a more determined one as he continues to speak.

"Ok it took you two long enough I thought you had gone off for a quickie in the woods...not like it wouldn't have been the first time!" Sorano shouted from the doors of Olympia causing Natsu to laugh dryly in response while Meredy turned beet red. "You don't have to shout loud enough for all of Alakatasia to hear you!" Meredy shouted in a very embarrassed tone at her best friend aside from Juvia who just stuck her tongue out in a childish manner as a response.

Natsu could only laugh at the two friend's interactions, he needed something to take his mind off the dark matters of Zeref, luckily he could always count on Meredy and Sorano for a good laugh. While he wasn't as friendly with Sorano as I was with Jellal out of all the Oracion Seis he got on with Sorano the best, this was primarily because he was able to reveal to get that he knew of her sister and that he promised that he would reunite them as soon as he could, which led to them having lots of conversations most of the time it was about how well her sister was doing, what type of magic she was using, what sort of relationship Natsu had with her etc. other times it was just having friendly conversations about their different and similar interests with one another

"Alright enough you guys let's get going before we get caught" Natsu said in a cheerful tone as the trip made their way into Olympia before returning to Crime Sorcierre headquarters. The journey was quite a long one but because Olympia could travel underwater it didn't take them as long as it would have if they were traveling by boat.

 **Crime Sorcierre headquarters**

"How did the rescue go?" a curious Jellal found himself asking the trio as they arrived back at headquarters. "As expected Alvarez is an enemy we cannot afford to underestimate, their Spriggan 12 may be the equivalent to our wizard saints but the one we fought today his abilities could rival, if not surpass that of the three remain kings of Ishgar" Meredy summed up in a worries tone.

Jellal's expression now grew worried "I see it is as I feared what else can you tell me?" the leader of the independent guild asked hoping for some good news. "Well it would appear all the Fairy tail mages have gotten stronger but, from the ones we've seen the only one who could definitely take on a spriggan level opponent by themselves is Laxus; however, his full capabilities as well as some of the others are still unknown" Sorano continued on from Meredy.

"Still even with that that only makes for 3 wizards who could combat the twelve 4 if you include Gildarts but we don't know where he is, as much as I don't want to involve them and as much as I hate to admit it this is going to become s nationwide war that will involve all the guild's of Fiore; we're going to need everyone to work together to take out the other eight or nine Spriggans" Natsu said in an exhausted time as he leaned up against the wall.

"Yeah as much as I hate to admit it the Salamander is right even seeing your memories of those guys gives me shivers, the only ones capable of fighting in par with them are as you say that Laxus guy, Jellal and Natsu himself. We'll just have to hope that your friend Gildarts shows up because unless I'm fighting with a few other people I don't fancy fighting a Spriggan by myself" Cobra admitted speaking up from his dark corner. While all the former Oracion Seis had gotten stronger it definitely wasn't near the level of a spriggan, at most Cobra and Midnight were at 5th wizard saint level. **(I.e. Makarov in his prime level)**

"This what will decide the date of our world and it will now be without loss" Jellal said a depressed tone as he began running ideas and strategies through his head of how to minimise casualties. But before he could do so Natsu spoke up. "You have no idea and I believe you're forgetting the wild card in this war...Acnologia" the dragonslayer spoke in a dark tone at the mention of the black dragon's name. Everyone visibly tensed at the mention of the creature's name as well after what Natsu told them he had witnessed what the Dragon of the apocalypse was capable off he became a worrying factor for the future of Earthland as the Dragon has no clear motives for what it did.

"true if no actually when that Dragon joins the battle there's no telling how this war will pan out, if we're lucky me may take out a large portion of the enemy for us but just likely if we're unlucky we could find ourselves on the receiving end of his wrath" Midnight said in an emotionless tone but truthfully he was scared shitless.

"That certainly is a good point as fast as I am I don't think I could outrun a dragon nor would I want to face one but if we're going to survive it seems we have little choice" Racer said in an exhausted voice earning nods all round. "Yes if I want to see my brother again such an evil must be stopped so I must fight we all must fight to protect what is important" Richard said using a very rare serious tone.

 **With Fairy tail**

"WHAT!" this is what the returning group of Fairy tail mages were met with when they had arrived back and told everyone what had happened "What do you mean you found Natsu? Why didn't you bring him back?" these were just a few of the questions floating around but hardly anyone wanted to answer them. "Settle down everyone, even if we wanted to bring him back we can't he has already made strong ties with another guild and as his friends we must respect his decision" the newly reinstated master Makarov said in a stern voice that meant his decision on this manner was absolute.

"First I believe it's time we told them what is coming" Makarov then spoke up before the spectral 'ghost' appeared to all of the Fairy tail members causing a few murmurs to go around the newly finished guild hall which was the grandest yet. "Yes eighth, I believe it's time for them to find out the true meaning of Lumen Histoire or to use its actual name Fairy Heart" Mavis Vermillion founder and 1st guild master of Fairy tail spoke up getting looks of confusion and interest in particular from Laxus especially since his father seemed so determined to get his hands on the Lumen Histoire so this information would provide some valuable insight into what drove his father to want it so much.

"Fairy Heart is an infinite supply of magic power" Mavis said rather bluntly causing everyone eyes to widen thinking they had misheard her; an infinite source of magic power was impossible no such thing could exist but it did and it was sought after by one particular dark mark mage. "Infinite is the best way to describe its magic capabilities but a better way may be an example, I'm sure you're all familiar with the Etherion Canon the council uses and the amount of magic it possesses?" Mavis asked earning a few nods all around the guild.

"Well simply put Fairy Heart can produce enough magic power to fire Etherion thirty times in two minutes" the petite blond revealed shocking everyone further. Now it made sense why Ivan was so desperate to get his hands on it, well that was how Laxus took the information it made sense in way, his father was bat shit crazy and if he had Fairy Heart combine it with some organic link magic he'd be unstoppable.

"That's interesting an all but where exactly does Zeref fit into this equation?" Laxus asked the first while he leaned up against one of the various pillars in the room, "This story take place a long time ago shortly after the formation of the guild and it's about a girl and a boy who fall in love" Mavis said in a calm voice before she began reciting the story about herself and Zeref how they met and he taught her magic and then how ten years later after forming Fairytail they met once more and began travelling. She told them everything up to the point where she finally realised she had contracted the curse of contradiction from Zeref and to prevent herself from taking another life she ran away from the guild.

"I tried everything, I resorted to starving myself in a desperate attempt to take my own life but it was futile, Zeref then found at this point as he had been looking for me after finally realising what had happened" Mavis continued with a sad weary voice. "But appeared all my attempts were in vain, even if I were to have beheaded myself I still wouldn't die, that was the power of the curse it granted me immortality just like Zeref; but I was desperate to get rid of this curse or more so to have someone take my life so I wouldn't take another so I begged Zeref to take my life" Mavis continued on as a look of melancholy made its way across her face.

"He did just that, well almost; the curse of contradiction takes away the more you love life but it can be easily controlled the more you hate or despise it. The only way however to kill or almost kill someone else who has the curse of contradiction is if someone else with the very same curse falls in love with you" she revealed and it for what seemed like the millionth time today surprising the wizards. Was Mavis really implying what they thought she was implying…her and Zeref now things were starting to make less sense than they already were.

"Before you ask Zeref wasn't always like this, he cared about life so much that he never would have wanted any of this to happen but something changed in him and now he's after Fairy Heart for some reason. Even I cannot theorise why he would want it but for Zeref of all people to want it must be a matter of life and death so to speak" Mavis summed up before she began walking towards the back of the building leaving a rather speechless guild, Makarov included as there was much of that he didn't know himself.

"So what do we do now?" a random guild member spoke up, "That's simple…we prepare for War, if Zeref wants the first then he's going to have to go through us to get to her" Laxus spoke up in an authoritive tone earning cheers all round before he gathered his thunder legion and with Freed in mind asked them to take care of a specific task while the others started sorting out battle and evacuation plans for the citizens.

 **Next day late afternoon with Crime Sorcierre**

"Okay who's going where we need to decide this fast, Fiore is under attack from all sides" Natsu said in a panicked voice but in reality he just couldn't wait to test his abilities against a powerful enemy the question was where to go. "You're right, some of us will head north to deal with the spriggans up that way and help the Sabretooth and Blue Pegasus mages up there, me and Meredy will head to Hargeon to deal help our allies and deal with the enemy forces there and Natsu you're going to have go east a deal with the enemy arriving from the side, from my information the three gods of ishgar and Jura are taking the western front" Jellal decided after quickly splitting his forces apart.

From the information they had gained there were 3 Spriggans up north, 3 to the west at least one to the east and another 3 in Hargeon, Fairytail had managed to defeat one of the 12 and capture a second and right now there were sending retrospective groups North and South to combat the threat. Meredy though had her own reservations about Natsu going to face a member of the Twelve alone, if it were Ajeel that would be one thing but he was only on the twelve and even with ten remaining the odds of fighting him seemed low so of course she was worried about Natsu fighting an enemy they knew nothing about.

Picking up on the pinkettes worry Natsu decided to reassure her, "Hey don't worry I'll be fine you know I always am" Natsu said accompanied by his classic smile but Meredy wasn't any less worried. "Look if push comes to shove I'll use 'that', okay?" upon hearing this Meredy widened, "Look I'm worried but if you use 'that' you won't have a chance against him, if you seem to be in a pinch just use your new mode but whatever you do don't use 'those' flames" Meredy said with sigh causing Natsu to smile but everyone else was looking between the two not having a clue about what they were taking about, not even Cobra could tell by reading their thoughts as he got nothing.

"Thanks Meredy you're the best" Natsu beamed a smile before giving her a quick kiss on the lips and then taking off like a rocket shouting about how he'll take anyone on while waving his arms childishly in air making everyone sweat drop at his change in attitude.

"We'll we better get going it is time for Crime Sorcierre to join the fight"

 **Chapter end**

 **Okay that's a rap, yeah I know an abrupt ending but I didn't want to have to write Laxus vs Walcht two days in a row but I will write that fight in the next chapter which will be longer as I plan on doing some of the fights that occurred.**

 **Didn't really like todays chapter of Fairytail from what I can tell and guess it doesn't look like Gildarts will be coming into face August I can now more likely see him coming into fighting Acnologia or Ilene either fight I wouldn't mind, actually I wouldn't mind if Ilene admitted that Acnologia was more than she bargained for and partners up with Gildarts to fight him when he shows up.**

 **However, the chapter should have focused on while also extending the fight for this chapter to at least another chapter because that appears to be the length for our boss villain battles 2-3 chapters at most, the Walcht one was the only one I've liked so far because it was well done and it can be easily explained how it turned out like it did.**

 **But a one chapter fight especially with one of the 12 is not on, look Hiro if you're trying to end Fairy tail quicker just say so because chapter quality has been decreasing at a rapid rate to the point where I enjoy nearly any fairy tail fanfic more so than the manga because we actually can come up with in-depth detailed fights that can last a few chapters as well as character development. I don't mean myself when I say that of course but the majority of fics that I have read things like that are apparent. Anyway rant about the declining quality aside I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you for my next update.**


	9. Zeref & Natsu Beginning of an Ending

**Just felt like doing this story more like I was in the mood for updating it, as usual I hope you enjoy this chapter it didn't take that long to write which may mean there's more mistakes than usual but at any rate still hope you enjoy it.**

 _ **Hargeon port**_

The port city of Hargeon was no longer its once peaceful self, no it had instead become a battle ground between the guild mages of Fiore and those of Alveraz, of course to make matters worse three of the Spriggans were there in the port town. Right now the forces of Mermaid Heel and Lamia Scale had joined together to face this threat and after yesterday's less than successful effort to take back the port town the mages were more determined than ever to take back the city.

"Ho she bounced back pretty well after her confrontation with Dimaria" a 'man' with shaggy black hair, metal gauntlets and an amused face said as he sets his sights on Kagura who was probably the wizard amongst the group of mages that could prove to be a threat. This 'man' was Walcht the adjudicator but he was far from being a man, no he was a heartless machine possessing the ability to use weakness magic; a type of magic that allows him to analyse his opponents to decipher their weak points which he can them monopolise to his own advantage.

" _ **You're the scumbag who took out Freed and the others!"**_ a voice filled with hate and malice belonging to none other than Laxus Dreyer said from behind Walcht before he was slammed through the building he stood upon and into the ground. "What never heard of them!" the adjudicator replied in a crazed tone along with an equally crazed facial expression as he grabbed his assailant's arm. "Tch they were my friends and don't you dare forget it!"

"Uugghh!"

Using his other free hand Laxus gave the machine a lightning imbued back hand sending across the courtyard they stood in, but with a few fancy flips Walcht was able to dig his hands into the ground beneath him to slow himself to a halt. "Yes someone finally worthy enough to be my opponent!" Walcht shouted to no-one in particular before his crazed facial expression returned and he clenched his fists.

" **Alchemically Fuse Copper and Zinc and drill them into 9mm bullets"** the mech called out causing chunks of metal ore to rise out of the ground before they starting fusing together and refining their shape until they appeared as bullets, **"FIRE!"** The bullets launched off towards Laxus with incredible speed and force as the ripped through the air.

However, Laxus wasn't fazed in the slightest he was filled with anger and hate for this 'thing' before him, even if they were to strike him he wouldn't stop he promised himself that he wasn't allowed to die until this war was over and that anyone that hurt his family would feel his full unprecedented wrath. He didn't even call out a spell and only looked at the bullets racing towards him before strands of lighting began circling them, the force of said lightning began increasing further and further until the point where it was causing the bullets to break apart into nothingness much to the machines surprise. Finally, it arrived and sensing the massive amount of magic power gathering above him Walcht wisely dodged out of the way as an enormous bolt of Light appeared out of nowhere before striking the port town shaking its foundations with the force of the impact.

"So much power"

"Lightning...?"

These were the responses among a few of the Lamia Scale mages one of which was Lyon Bastia which caused a fellow ice make mage cry to smirk, "This type of whether is normal around Magnolia, sunny with a chance of Laxus…then later transitioning into freezing rain!" Gray responded before he and Juvia froze a group of Alveraz soldiers.

"Tch what a pain" Walcht muttered as the smoke from the lightning strike started to disperse revealing an unharmed Walcht and Laxus. "Analysing target" two lock on symbols appeared in Walcht eyes as he said this before he glared at Laxus. Laxus himself cared not for what the machine was doing, even if it could reveal any weakness in his body it wouldn't matter he'd still soldier on and destroy whoever got in his way.

"Analysis complete…what the hell, is this even real; your organs they're…" Laxus didn't give Walcht a chance to finish as he launched himself towards the mech with a lightning imbued fist causing Walcht to smirk, "Heh I'll take that challenge" Walcht said with a grin before his mechanical arms started puffing out steam give his physical strength a buff up. The two punches thrown met each other with equal force creating a shockwave that resounded throughout the air causing the ground beneath them to shatter followed by lightning flashing all over the courtyard.

"You're really somethin ain'tcha punk…how are you even alive, there's no way your human" Walcht said with a shit eating grin but Laxus just glared daggers at the machine, "I'm no more human than you but it doesn't matter how I'm alive, I never have and never will sweat the details; what matters is how I live in the here and now!" Laxus roared out followed by his magic power increasing causing Walcht eyes to widen in disbelief before he was slugged in the jaw by a full power Lightning Dragon Iron Fist firmly implant the machine in the ground.

"Don't fuck with me, you humans are all the same with your little speeches I'll let you in on a little secret Lightning won't do shit to me so you better think extra hard about how you want to die!" Walcht shouted before he got up seemingly unharmed and slugged Laxus back sending him back a few metres before he skidded to a stop. The key word was seemingly, while Walcht was now revealed to be impervious to Lightning making the dragonslayer's magic useless against although that was only the magic aspect of Laxus magic, the increased physical strength and force Laxus' magic provided him with was still a factor that affected Walcht robotic body and even though it was made of incredibly durable and strong material he didn't know if his body would hold out in an all-out slug fest with its current properties.

Walcht immediately went on the offence again catching up to Laxus in no time at all but as he buffed his strength again despite the destruction the shockwave from just throwing caused he was frozen in place when he felt something grip his fist. "Impossible no human could stop such an atta…aaaahhhh!" Walcht started when he saw that Laxus had stopped the attack with one hand before applying more pressure to Walcht fist until it was crushed in his grip. " **I told you I'm no more human than you! Lightning Dragon's Jaw"** Taking both hands and clasping them together before lightning surrounded them Laxus slammed them down on Walcht's head causing him to plummet through the ground and into the city's sewer system.

"Error, error system damage exceeding expectation; Target's physical strength far exceeds that of human limitations" Walcht said as he reassessed the situation, he was furious with himself for making such a mistake.

"Analysis complete; large quantities of magic barrier particles have somehow managed to enter the target's body, but still this guy's strength and magic power are top tier within Fairy tail" Walcht summed up before coming up with a new strategy. "With current personality and exoskeletal settings target's victory is assured, switching personality to cold and ruthless; setting Laxus as sole target" Walcht said with his voice getting colder with every word. "Diverting all magic power to magic ignition ovens, set time for target annihilation ninety seconds" magic power, metal materials and ores seemed to gather around Walcht as he said this causing Laxus to narrow his eyes in suspicion upon feeling the increasing amount of magic.

"…UUUUGHHH…."

"Walcht assault mode ready for Sortie!" a cold mechanical voice said from within the sewers after a thermal projectile was launched skyward barely missing Laxus shoulder and Exploding like a star in the sky earning looks of fear across the town from all Fiore mages alike. Suddenly Laxus felt something similar to a vice applying pressure to his heart and lungs, **"Not now of all times…this damn body of mine"** Laxus cursed in his head but he wasn't given time for a breather as Walcht activated her boosters causing him to speed towards the blonde before he punched Laxus in the chest aiming for his weak point followed by several protrusions appearing from his fist before they fired a shockwave sending pain through the dragonslayer's body as well as sending him skyward.

"Massive quantities of magic barrier particles may have infiltrated his body but that doesn't make him any less of a threat, one that needs to be illuminated" Walcht said before analysing Laxus trajectory.

" **Missile bombardment!"**

"AAAAHHHHHH"

" **Anti-matter canon!"**

"AAAAHHHHHH"

Walcht landed bombardment of blow and attack on Laxus who was helpless as each and every strike connected with his body, jumping on top of a building Walcht prepared one final attack, **"Rail Gun Bombardment!"** the frame of a large canon erupted out of the mech's back before hit began charging up with electricity and launched towards the bloodied body of Laxus. However, after another miscalculation and the smoke from the explosion cleared Laxus charged straight towards the machine, his muscle mass, size and Magic power increased before he threw a powerful punch at Walcht face sending him flying back through a building wall but using his thruster Walcht stabilised himself and he took out another weapon.

"Error electricity based attacks seemed to be favoured by this opponent, however like him I too am immune to electricity based attacks giving me the advantage" Walcht said in a cold tone as he shot rapid burst of magic bullets which Laxus swiftly dodged before delivering another attack **"Lightning Dragon's Talon!"** with Lightning coating his right foot Laxus delivered the powerful kick one more to Walcht's face, the force of the attack this sent Walcht crashing into the ground before he was sent through a large wooden crate.

"Error exceeded annihilation time limit, this human…!" Walcht said in an aggravated tone as he pushed himself back up. However, the mech brought his words to a halt when a loud thud signalled Laxus touching down on the street, his facial expression was shadowed and overall he gave off and imposing and intimidating vibe.

As much as it seemed like Laxus had the advantage it was anything but, the lightning mage could feel the poison spreading through his body the more he used his magic and he could feel his organs getting weaker and weaker, it was like he was fighting a completely separated battle just for the sake of standing and breathing.

" **At this rate I don't think I'll last much longer without using 'that', I still have Mercury fulminate but I need to get rid of the rest of this poison first"** Laxus thought to himself as he stalked closer towards Walcht before he 'fell' to the ground not too far away from the machine. He was just praying to whatever gods watched over Earthland that he ploy succeeded.

"Hoh it seems you've just about hit your limit human, nonetheless it was an impressive display; I'd imagine those barrier particles within your body have just about reached peak optimal conditions making even the simple process of breathing painful" Walcht said, his confidence returning. "To be honest from what I know about you I'm surprised you managed to last an entire year with the amount of particles you had in your body, surely if it were any other human they would have died much sooner; I must thank you for the display you've given me, truly it was a battle I shall never forgot, to think someone existed that could push me this far in that sort of state making you a dangerous person indeed" Walcht said sincerely, complimenting Laxus as he clapped his hands together.

Although the robot failed to notice Laxus outstretched hand writing something into the ground, "As a reward for the battle you have given me I in turn shall give you a fitting end worthy of such a battle" the machine said before what appeared to be his core began glowing a bright light blue colour. **"Converting all magical power to illegal magical eradication substances; Etherion"** upon hearing this Laxus began to panic, he wrote as fast as possible not believing that there was a wizard let alone a machine who could single handily cast the Sacred magic light of the council.

Fate seemed to be on Laxus' side as before Walcht could finish casting etherion Laxus finished writing causing a large ruin circle to appear around the two surprising and distracting Walcht. "A Jutsu shiki?" Walcht said in surprise before Laxus stood himself up, "Yeah, one specifically created to nullify magic barrier particles and keep any trapped inside it" Laxus revealed but Walcht only smirked, "fool it would appear that your memory capacity is faulty, a pitiful barrier like this is nothing to me, observe!" the machine shouted giving a wave of his right hand completely dispelling the barrier but what he heard as a result confused him greatly…laughter, had his opponent gone mad with fear?

"Thanks Freed o really do owe you one, there aren't many wizards out there that could dispel one of your barriers; but even if there were he or she would have to completely eradicate the barrier particles meaning they would be just what the doctor ordered" Laxus revealed grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Crap…MOTHER FUCKER; ERROR, SYSTEM ERROR, ERROR!" Walcht cursed at himself, he just made the biggest blunder possible.

"I HATE TO BARE MY FANGS AT MY SAVIOUR AND ALL BUT YOU REALLY DID A NUMBER ON MY FRIENDS SO IT'S TIME TO PAY!" Laxus shouted as his magic started to return to normal and he charged towards the machine in front of him. Although the damage done by the barrier particles was still present and most likely irreversible it didn't matter to him he had enough magic power do the job for now before he would later have the chance to try out his full power.

"It's may turn to let you in on a little secret!" Laxus shouted as his fist connected with Walcht mid-section lifting him up off the ground and continued to push him back as they both flew through the air. "The weight of my life alone is nothing and pales I comparison to theirs…HHHHUUUUGGGHHH!" the lightning dragon roared out as he poured more magic power into his fist causing a large amount of Lightning to drill into Walcht armour although with Little success.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD Lightning won't do shit to me...?!" Walcht said confidently until he noticed that Laxus' Lightning was no longer gold but had turned a deep crimson colour as if it were the mage's one blood flowing out from his body, "What the hell, Blood red lightning analysis...impossible?!" it was now that the mech could feel it, his armour was being bored through by the red lightning as if it were eating away at his body.

In mere seconds Laxus powered through Walcht's robotic body, his red lightning causing an explosion on everything it came into contact with even the air itself. "Heh…heh…heh" as he stood triumphantly over his fallen opponent Laxus could only let out heavy breathes in a sign of exhaustion. His gamble had worked but as a result he had sustained more damage than necessary and he knew he would have to sit out from any battles for the next while until he had recovered enough.

 **Western Front**

We currently see an approaching army of thousands with nothing in its way, nothing except one pink haired individual who just stood there impatiently tapping his metallic arm. As the army came nearer Natsu was able to distinguish one figures power level, it was most definitely a spriggan and they gave off a mixed magical signature similar to that of Gray's and that of a god slayer's.

As the army came to a halt not too far from Natsu's position a white haired man of average height and build wearing glasses stepped forward, said man being the owner of the magic power. "Who dares stand in the way of his majesty's army?" the spriggan shouted as he made his way through the army up to the front so that he was better able to see this person who defies Zeref's army.

"I do! Natsu Dragneel" Natsu announced confidently earning a scoff from the white haired man, "General Invel please don't bother with this whelp we shall take care of him" one of the soldiers spoke causing the now identified Invel to nod in approval before he made his way back into the midst of the soldiers. "Oi where do you think you're going!" Natsu shouted a little pissed that they were taking him so lightly. "General Invel shouldn't have to waste his time on worthless mages such as yourself; everyone charge!" the same soldier insulted before shouting his order showing that he was most likely a captain.

"What a hassle" Natsu muttered under his breath as he got into a fighting stance to combat the incoming soldiers. **"FLAME DRAGON KING'S ROAR!"** Natsu's eyes turned to slits as he roared this followed by an enormous stream of the most brilliant dragon fire he had ever produced. The end result surprised even Invel, the heat and magic power he was radiating was incredible but as a spriggan and Zeref's right hand he was able to sense that Natsu was holding back.

"Don't falter men keep going" despite a large number of soldiers being taken out with a single attack they were no less determined nor were their numbers any less intimidating as they continued to try and reach the pink haired dragonslayer. **"CRASH!"** extending his metal arm out it was surrounded in a bright glowing white light before it shot off a powerful blast of crash magic which tore through the earth beneath the soldiers as well as took out a large portion of their forces but Natsu wasn't done.

" **Flame Dragon King's Wing Attack!"** sprinting forward Natsu leapt into a crowd of the soldiers before using a wide range area attack, then jumping up into the air he gathered dragon fire in his left hand and crash magic on his right metallic one, **"** With Crash magic in my right hand and the flames of the fire dragon king in the other; bring them together and you get…"

" **Flame Dragon King's Shattering Blaze!"**

Clapping his hands together Natsu combined the brilliant orange/red fire in one hand with shinning white crash magic in the other forming a large ball made up of a mixture of crash and fire dragonslayer magic. The result of the impact was as one would expect a large explosion indeed that once again took out a large number of soldiers and any who were near wear blown back by the shockwave created. Natsu now stood in a large crater littered with the unmoving bodies of the soldiers he had taken out but before Invel could step forward to put him in his place a familiar voice spoke up.

" _two thousand seven hundred and forty-three soldiers taken out in less than five minutes, colour me impressed Natsu"_ it was as if the air was speaking causing the soldiers to look around in shock thinking they had gone mad, only Natsu and Invel had calm expressions on their faces. Soon out of thin air a black orb appeared and began swirling before it started taking shape revealing no other than the Emperor Spriggan himself causing Natsu to growl.

"I'm glad that we could meet like this Natsu, I'm glad that it was you but the question is 'are you strong enough?' Although I will admit that you learning crash magic and combining it with your dragonslayer magic was an unexpected surprise" the emperor said with a slight smirk pulling at his lips. "I never understand a damn thing that comes out of that mouth of yours…Zeref" Natsu said as he grabbed the bandage on his arm contemplating what he had discussed with Meredy, Zeref was one of two that he considered using this power on, the other being Acnologia but if he were to take out Zeref he could stop this war here and now and although Acnologia was a dangerous threat he and the other dragonslayers could take care of him.

"Zeref?"

"What did he call his Majesty?"

"It's what they call his Majesty here in Ishgar" Invel answered his soldiers who were confused by the revelation of their ruler's name. "Invel take the soldiers and retreat back I'll take care of this myself" Zeref said in an amused tone confusing his own general. "Your Majesty there is no need for you to do this, please allow me" Invel tried to reason but the sharp glare he earned from Zeref made him instantly agree to his Emperor's wishes.

"Men withdraw for now!" Invel shouted before leading his soldiers away from the soon to be disaster soon. **"This is your last chance Natsu I won't be holding back so you better use everything you have"** Zeref thought to himself before his eyes changed to their awakened blood red state and the magic oozed off him. Not to his surprise Natsu didn't even flinch, instead he began removing the bandage from his arm, "Everything that's happened to my family, my friends it's because of you; Acnologia and Grimoire Heart coming to Tenrou, Eclipse, Tartaros and Igneel…It's all your fault!" Natsu shouted before he ripped off the bandage completely revealing a red dragon tattoo on the lower half of his arm making Zeref's eyes widen.

" **What is this magical power…this radiant heat?!"**

 **Chapter end**

 **Ok that's a wrap for this chapter, I'm sorry for the Laxus fight being so similar to that of my Natsu Sayla story but the changes I did make were the only ones I could think off which wouldn't affect the future storyline of chapters to come too much. AND BEFORE YOU GET ON MY CASE YES I KNOW THE Natsu AND ZEREF FIGHT HAPPENED BEFORE THE LAXUS AND WALCHT FIGHT BUT I JUST NEEDED TO DO THIS FOR THE SAKE OF THIS STORY AND FUTURE CHAPTERS. I'm not sure if I'm going to do the whole magic tumour thing with Natsu in this story because without happy there Natsu doesn't have a way to get away or get to fairy tail so I'm going to think of some things. If I do it then I will most like have Mest teleport in and save his ass. Anyway until next time bye.**


	10. Chapter 10 Never One to Listen

**Okay the long awaited tenth chapter is finally here sorry for the wait, sharing a laptop can be tough. Plan to get a spare within the next week, I hope this chapter makes up for the break thinking of a follow up chapter was tough I wasn't sure how I wanted things to go. So without further delay here's the next chapter.**

" **What is this magical power…this radiant heat?!"**

In untraceable speeds Natsu was in front of Zeref before he delivered a devastating flaming right hook to Zeref's face sending him flying back. However, Natsu wasn't stopping there in mere moments he was right up in Zeref's face once more this time delivering a flaming left hook to the spriggan emperor's abdomen.

"Your Majesty!" Invel could only stare in worry and disbelief, to think that Zeref; the spriggan emperor was being pushed back like this. Natsu tried to get up close to Zeref once more but as soon as he came within a few feet Zeref returned the favour and threw out his right arm causing a powerful blast of dark energy connecting perfectly with Natsu face resulting in the skin on his tight cheek tear forming a large triangular cut but thanks to the incredible heat from his magic the injury was sealed up forming a scar.

Zeref stared one another down before Natsu grit his teeth. "You've become incredibly powerful Natsu, tell what is that power?" Zeref asked in a mixture of amusement and curiosity. "This power took me ten months to unleash, the very last of Igneel's power left within me before he died, but this power is only a one time use so I have to make the most of it, it truly is Igneel's undying tenacity" Natsu declared shocking Zeref greatly.

" **I see, a power from beyond the dead; If that's the case then you just might be able to defeat me Natsu"** Zeref thought to himself, not able to help the smile that made its way onto his face or the tears forming in his eyes.

" **BLAZE DRAGON KING MODE!"**

In an explosion of heat that made the previous fail in comparison the very land around Natsu was set ablaze causing Zeref and his troops watching from a distance to widen their eyes in disbelief. The brilliant orange and red flames danced wildly and ferociously around the pinkette. Natsu himself could tell that his prosthetic limb wouldn't last long, despite its incredible durability he doubted it could withstand the heat from pure dragon flames; no less that of a dragon king.

"I'm impr…UUUGHHH!" before Zeref could compliment Natsu on his achievement he felt the air leave his lungs as well as a scorching sensation around his abdomen as Natsu swiftly closed the distance between them delivering a blazing fist to the dark wizard's gut in the process, sending him reeling back.

A smile made its way across Zeref's face, despite the pain causing by the physical force of the blow as well as the severe burns his regeneration factor swiftly got to work on healing him. **"SILENT DEATH!"** outstretching his right palm Zeref sent a large ball of death magic towards Natsu while skidding to a stop.

" **BURN!"** with a flick of the wrist Natsu engulfed the death magic in a pillar of flames incinerating the dark magic in the process. "He incinerated my magic!?" Zeref said to himself in shock before having to dodge an incoming punch, although he wasn't as successful with the follow up blow. **"Blaze Dragon Kings Talon!"** with a powerful blazing swipe from his right foot Natsu planted a powerful kick to Zeref face causing the black wizard back a few feet before sending out a powerful shockwave towards Natsu tearing up the earth between them in the process.

The force from the attack forced Natsu back a considerable amount before he came skidding to a stop and began taking in a deep breath. **"Blaze Dragon Kings Roar!"** Natsu's powerful roar tore through all in its path but despite the powerful attack Zeref smiled before running right up to the attack and thrusting both his hands in a V-shape into the flames causing a stream of black to split the attack down the middle before continuing towards Natsu.

Natsu was beyond shocked but he had little time to be as he had to dodge the incoming stream of black energy. Once again they stared the other down but Natsu could feel the remnants of Igneel's power fading and knew he had to end this soon. This Natsu charged at Zeref with as much magic power as he could have packed into one final flaming punch "I'M ENDING THIS NOW!"

Zeref remained completely still his expression shadowed and unreadable, that was until he raised his head up showing that he was truly crying. **"All this time, I knew you could do it Natsu; Natsu, Igneel and Anna, thank you"** Zeref thought to himself before inevitable attack connected with him engulfing the entire area in an immense explosion.

"YOUR MAJESTY! How us this even possible?" Invel couldn't help but mutter to himself in shock and also slightly in fear. He never even thought it possible for someone to defeat Zeref, if that was the case then what chance did they have now.

Much to Natsu's surprise when the explosion cleared it revealed a still standing albeit shakily Zeref causing Natsu to grit his teeth in frustration. "Please Igneel, stay with me for one last attack" the dragonslayer muttered to himself. "I'm truly impressed Natsu, you might just be able to end this with another attack but before that there is something you should now" Zeref said as he recomposed himself puzzling Natsu slightly.

"My name is Zeref Dragneel…I'm your brother, Natsu" Zeref revealed completely throwing Natsu for a loop making him forget the time restraint he was under. "Y-Yeah right, m-me and you brothers, that's a laugh" Natsu said in an unsure way, truth be told even when he first met Zeref on Tenrou island eight years ago he knew there was something familiar about him, similar to how he felt when he met Wendy.

It was then his mind went back to what Zeref said to him at the time, he was crying at the time; **"Natsu…You've grown…I see you're still not strong enough"** the way he spoke it was as if he had known him and the fact that he was crying it was as he hadn't seen him in a long time.

"400 hundred years ago, our parents were killed by dragon embers, you as well; I was distraught so I sought about a way to bring you back" Zeref said bringing Natsu back to reality, "In those four hundred years I created the etherious and in turn brought you as my greatest creation; Etherious Natsu Dragneel or as you better know yourself E.N.D" Zeref said as he summoned the book of said demon in his hands.

"T-That's a load of bull, me E.N.D over four years old, I was told that Igneel tried to kill E.N.D but was unable to; if I'm E.N.D then Igneel would have been able to kill" Natsu argued back but inside he was shaking, he had to be lying. "It would be more accurate to say he wouldn't kill rather than he couldn't, you're right in saying that Igneel could have easily killed you but he loved you too much to do so" Zeref revealed in a monotonous voice causing Natsu to grit his teeth as he watched Zeref drop the book to the ground.

"CUT THE BULLL…. AAAAGGGGHHHH" Natsu shouted before he went to charge Zeref but he was halted by a piercing pain in his heart forcing him to drop to his knees. "You never were to listen, Natsu; even as a kid it was a pain just to get to learn how to read and write" Zeref said in the same tone as before upon firing a concentrated laser beam at the centre of the book. "That's why I took you to see an old friend, Igneel; You see Igneel was a special case among dragons as he bared no ill will towards humans" Zeref explained as Natsu shakily stood up.

"Give me a break, you and Igneel friends" Natsu struggled to say in disbelief as he began charging the last bit of Igneel's power that was left. "I had learned of Igneel's plan to teach you dragon slayer magic and I gave my permission in the hopes you would grow strong enough, the plan in essence was to send five dragons with five children all of whom were orphans to the future in the hopes to defeat Acnologia" Zeref explained smirking slightly at the look on his younger brother's face.

"Those five children were you, Gajeel, Wendy, Sting and Rogue; using Eclipse and the assistance of Anna Heartphillia we would send you four hundred years into the future where on the date July 7th X777 one of Anna's descendants would open the gate" Zeref finally finished with a sigh, "Although now I've decided to stray from my original path, 400 years is a long time" the dark mage said in a saddened tone.

"I've seen entire nations crumble and I found myself slowly losing interest in life or death…first I lost you, then Mavis which is why…"

"Shut up I'm ending this right now!"

"This is your last chance to defeat me Natsu, if I die then so will you" Zeref revealed in a choked voice as tears flowed from his eyes. "I don't give a damn, I came all this way just to defeat you I can't stop now!" Natsu shouted at his brother, "Even if it means you'll lose her" Zeref replied still in a saddened tone, he truly didn't want to cause Natsu anymore pain but it was the way things have played out.

Natsu continued on with his charge, **"It's too late now, even if I die it's so she, everyone can live on"** Natsu mentally steeled himself as the end was so close in sight but before he could he felt all strength in his muscles leave, even his heartbeat felt weaker.

"Uuuurrgghhhh" slowly Natsu dropped to the ground completely drained of power making him turn his attention to the dragon tattoo that was no longer present on his arms. "I see, so this is the cost of storing so much magic power in a smaller magical container" Zeref said with a sigh before his previous cold demeanour returned. "I'm sorry things had to turn out like this Natsu, I honestly had all my faith in you from the beginning but like I said I've strayed from that path, I refuse to live in a world that will constantly reject me…that's why this is goodbye brother" Zeref said in a dangerous tone as he gathered magic power in his hand causing a black orb of death magic to build up.

"Not if I can help!"

Out of nowhere Mest teleported to Natsu's side and in an instant they were gone again making Zeref smirk. **"Things might just get interesting now"** the spriggan emperor thought to himself before Invel and his soldiers came back up to his side. "Your Majesty is there anything you require?" Invel asked with a respectful boy causing Zeref to turn to him, the smirk still present on his face.

"Yes, bring me some new clothing more befitting of an emperor"

 **Fairytail Guild hall**

"Someone quickly help he isn't breathing!" Mest shouted upon teleporting into the guild worrying everyone that was present. "Quickly get him into the infirmary we haven't got time to waste!" Porlyusica shouted before Macao and Wakabe helped get Natsu into the infirmary.

"Natsu, what happened to him!?" Happy and Lucy shouted in panic as they made their way into the infirmary after him. "Mest what happened?" Makarov asked the teleportation mage in worry while Mavis nervously stared into the infirmary. "He fought Zeref, it's a miracle he survived" Mest revealed trying to regain his breath causing the guild to go deathly silent.

"We should see how he's doing" Mavis said in an even tone as she and Makarov made their way into the infirmary where they came across a very panicked Porlyusica. "How is he?" Mavis asked reluctantly. "I've managed to bring him back around but he's not out of the woods yet" Porlyusica said in an exhausted manner.

"This is the brat who's always pushing himself beyond his limits, well now it's taking the toll on his body; near his heart an anti-magic tumour has developed" the medic revealed shocking all those in the infirmary, "What does that mean, he's gonna be okay right!" Happy asked with teary eyes as he placed his hand on Natsu's slightly melted one, "I mean this is Natsu we're talking about, he wouldn't die, he can't" Happy continued on despite the feeling of dread he felt.

"Surely you could remove it" Lucy tried suggest but Porlyusica just spoke her head, "It's no use, even if I had the skills to perform such an operation the tumour is too big; the slightest error and I could end up piercing his lung or his heart" the medic revealed, I can help" Brandish said from her own bed in the infirmary. "How?!" Lucy asked in hope going over beside the green haired woman.

"Take off these cuffs and I can shrink the tumour to a size where it could be possible to surgically remove it, it's not like I could do anything with all of you here besides I owe Aquarius" Brandish said causing Lucy to look towards Master Makarov and Mavis only to see them nod.

 **Two hours later**

"How's he doing?" Lucy asked Porlyusica as the guild's medic came back into the main hall where everyone waited on baited breath. "He's fine, with some rest he'll be back to normal" Porlyusica said before cheers erupted around the guild. Lucy then went over to brandish who had her magic sealing cuffs placed back on her wrists.

"Brandish thank you so much" Lucy said hugging the green haired spriggan before she shrugged the celestial spirit user off her. "I didn't do it for you, now please just take me back to the cell" the mass manipulation mage requested making Lucy sigh slightly. "Oh okay" the blonde replied in a saddened voice before Brandish was escorted to her cell.

"Guys news from Hargeon, it appears Laxus has defeated one of the twelve" Warren called out resulting in further cheers. "Alright that three of them down, maybe we can do this" a random guild member called out but Makarov and Mavis weren't gonna say this was over, because it wasn't not by a long shot.

 **Meanwhile back in Hargeon**

"That's right if I wanted I could cut you all down in an instant" Dimaria said in a cocky tone before she clicked her teeth together. "Yes in the blink of an eye you'd be nothing more than headless corpses" the spriggan continued to say. The objects of her statements were one Wendy Marvel, Chelia Blendy and Carla.

"Now who to start with, how about you the one that kicked my face!" Dimaria said aggressively as she circled the group before placing the tip of her blade at Wendy's throat. Why isn't she dodging one might be wondering. Well in this circumstance that option was nigh impossible as these individuals have had their time stopped.

"Little kids don't belong on the Battlefield!" Dimaria shouted as she drew her blade back in preparation to strike. However, much to her surprise both Wendy and Chelia dodged out of the way before delivering a twin kick to Dimaria's face.

" **TWIN SKY ARROW!"**

"How is this possible, I rule this domain" Dimaria said to herself but all were surprised by the sound of clicking heels. "You are not the only one who walks the path of time" a feminine voice said from behind Wendy and the other revealing a woman carrying a teal coloured orb at her hip.

"You"

 **Chapter end**

 **Okay hope this ties you over for a while, once again sorry for the wait and the fact that this is a shorter than usual chapter don't know why just sometimes I find it hard to get my flare for a story if I haven't wrote for it in a while.**


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